In Flight Gaiden: A New Dawn
by SatireSwift
Summary: An alternate continuation of In Flight by Gabriel Blessing. Zelretch had just fled from the world of Creation, taking with him a shard of a Solar Exaltation. However, the moment he try's to look at it, it chooses Shirou Emiya to become a Lawbringer. How will he handle being given potential greater than gods? And just what followed the Kaleidoscope from Creation?
1. Chapter 1

On a rooftop in downtown Shin Tokyo, there was a sudden flash and swirl of rainbow colored light. It twisted and bent in strange ways, forming shapes and depths that a normal human would not be able to perceive, and would give them a headache if they tried. However, if such a person persevered, they would see a man appear on the rooftop, in a motion that resembled nothing so much as rotating yourself 90 degrees to everything else in the universe.

It's because of this difficulty due to limited perception (among many, many other reason) that the man on the roof was one of the relatively few in existence that could travel the multiverse.

Zelretch was the man's name, and he looked of a respectively old age, but not too old as many who saw him would be quick to point out. This may have had something to do with the fact that he was also a vampire, but that was neither here nor there. The most important thing at that moment, especially to the man himself, was just how worst for wear he was.

Most assuredly he had seen worse. Such as it was, his dress cloths that were about a century or two out of style were torn, his short cape was in tatters and exhaustion was creeping into his immortal bones. Yes, he had most definitely seen worse, but anything that could push the 700 year old sorcerer that controlled the operation of parallel worlds into such a state was not to be taken lightly.

_Heh, I haven't had to fight like that in ages,_ he thought to himself, stretching out his limbs. _That's definitely a world I'm going to check out again later._' He frowned. _Much later. And more discreetly._

Zelretch strode forward and looked around idly. _Now, where in the R__oot be damned multi__verse am I?_ In his haste to get away from those rather unreasonable fellows which put him in such a state, he had tried to jump to one of the realities that he had indexed as safe, though he seemed to have missed his mark a bit. Given the sheer size and complexity of the multiverse, the sorcerer had to leave a sort of magical mark on any universe he visited. Otherwise, he would never be able to find a particular universe again. He closed his eyes and briefly let himself go, searching the sea of possibility for the closest index he could find, and was pleasantly surprised that his aim wasn't too far off.

_Ah yes, this is a variant of the one w__h__ere that Emiya boy became involved with those Sekirei things. That little rascal._ Zelretch thought to himself with a chuckle. Shirou Emiya, being a mage with an innate sense of justice and a way with women (if completely unknowingly), was always one of the old man's favorite sources of entertainment. When the sorcerer found a reality where the boy had found himself accidently possessing a harem of super powered alien women, Zelretch thought he had hit the jackpot. In any case, this universe was fairly close (probabilistically speaking) to the one he already had indexed, save for that he was in a slightly different part of the time stream. It would be almost impossible to tell what was different from the other universe without going over it was a fine comb, but Zelretch both didn't care and more important things on his mind.

Reaching into a dimensional pocket he used to store items, Zelretch carefully pull out the thing which he had acquired in the last dimension, which was also the thing that was partially responsible for his current state. To anyone else watching, it looked like a simple yellow-gold crystal, softly emanating light of the same color. Zelretch on the other hand saw it for what it really was, saw past the mere physical form for which it had taken no small amount of talent on his part to shape it into.

It was glory. It was power. Most importantly, it was _potential_.

_Still, I don't see why those fellows were so insistent__ that I could__n't__ take one._ He thought to himself in irritation. _The container had already been broken when I got there, and there were a number of far more unsavory people that were taking half of them. I only wanted one._

His thoughts turned to how to properly study it when suddenly the crystal's soft glow began to increase in intensity. He looked at it in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened in realization. "No, no, don't you dare-!"

With a sudden, brilliant burst of light, the crystal was gone.

The Wizard Marshall stared at his empty hand for a moment before he let out a litany of curses that would have made a sailor blush. After a few minutes when he had calmed down, he rubbed his eyes with his hand and muttered to himself. "Great. Just great. I go through all that trouble and the thing picks someone as soon as I take a look at it. Now I have to find the person before they-"

Zelretch stopped as a thought came to him. "Wait, what if it picked him? The boy would probably fit the criteria, more than anyone else in this reality. The odds are still probably low…"A slow grin split the old man's face. "Who am I kidding. Coincidence and contrivance orbit the boy like women. It definitely chose him."

The sorcerer looked out over the city, extending his magic to find the young man, hoping to find the one thing he valued more over research.

Entertainment.

* * *

I was going to die.

Though I had prepared as best I could for my eventual encounter with the Mage's Association, it was starting to look like it wasn't enough. Archibald's defense was too good for me to penetrate, so I had tried to use Rule Breaker to destroy his Mystic Code. It failed when it turned out the code had far too much prana in it for me to destroy, and I had ended up wasting all of my own prana. I could still move and fight, but with no magic and no way to get past his defense, it had become a battle of attrition which I was clearly going to lose.

"Pathetic," Archibald said with a sneer. "As if a third rate magus like yourself could ever hope to affect my Mystic Code. Now you're nothing but a brute with some swords."

I blocked the quicksilver tentacles as best I could, but without my increased speed and stamina, it was impossible. As I brought my blades up to block an overhead strike, I felt another one pierce me through my middle. A massive bloom of pain ripped through my body, and as I screamed I could feel blood gushing out of my mouth. I collapsed to the ground, my swords slipping out of my grasp as I felt the quicksilver blade withdraw from my body.

It was all I could do to press my hands to my sternum, for all the good it would do. Through the pain, I managed to see Archibald standing over me with a smug grin on his face. He said "A much as I want to kill you now, it will greatly improve my standing with the Clock Tower if I bring you back alive. Besides, I'm sure that you'll wish I killed you by the time they're through with you."

The world started to go black, and my thoughts turned to my flock and family, who would never know what had happened to me. I thought of my lovers Rin and Saber, who would be devastated to learn of my fate. They would lose me, but I kept them safe. Though this was my end, at least I did some good.

**This is not your end.**

In the darkness, a light bloomed. It was distant at first, but it slowly grew in intensity. Time seemed meaningless as words formed in my mind.

**You would sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. You would stand alone against the darkness to protect the weak. You would suffer to let others have a chance at happiness. **

**Someday, your fight will end.**

The light had grown to become everything, a brilliance that was greater than all. Then, the pain began to recede.

**But that is not this day.**

Slowly by surely, the pain was gone and replaced with something else. Something glorious.

**You shall be the salvation of the helpless. You shall bring light to where the darkness hides. You shall be the sword which will strike down the corrupt, the hateful, and the wicked.**

**Shirou Emiya, you shall be a Champion of Justice.**

I could feel power flowing through me, giving me new strength. As I opened my eyes to see a confused looking Archibald, I realized that the light was in me, pouring forth from my very soul. It felt like…

Like a Sun.

**Now RISE.**

A pillar of golden light erupted around me, and Archibald barley managed to jump back before my rising punch could connect.

"What?! Impossible!" he exclaimed as the quicksilver swirled around him once again.

As I stood there, I knew that the wound in my sternum had healed. I could feel this new power flow through me, like magic yet not. This was something more potent, alive, like the fires of Creation itself. I felt it touch my magic circlets, not quite flowing into them, but still interacting with them somehow.

Instinctually, I put my hands out to my sides and with a little force of will my blades flew into my hands. The fact that I shouldn't be able to do that seemed irrelevant, my newfound power almost whispering to me what I could do.

With a snarl, Archibald launched another wave of attacks at me, but it was useless. Without knowing why, as I went to block the power surged through me and I found myself moving even faster and with more skill than I usually could, parrying the blades without effort.

When my thoughts turned to attack, a golden light enveloped my sabers and my final parry severed the quicksilver tentacle in half, some of it splashing to the ground as I did so.

The magus sputtered "No! You can't do that! That's impossible!"

He didn't say anything else, because in a blink, I was on him, my blade coming down on him in a vertical slash. I was blocked by the quicksilver, but only just as the golden glow allowed me to cut through the shell somewhat. I became a blur, moving and attacking faster than I ever had. He tried to retaliate, but it was no use. With every strike he made I had moved to a different part of the shell, hacking away at it. With each hit, the quicksilver became a bit slower and weaker, becoming damaged from my blows.

Soon it became too much and the shell broke completely, falling to the ground inert. Archibald was only just able to realize this before I brought both blades across his midsection, nearly cutting him in half as I did so. He fell to the ground and looked around in fear for a way to escape, but found something else instead. "W-w-what is this?!" he screamed as he looked back at me. "What are you?!"

Indeed, the battlefield had changed somewhat. A brilliant light emanated from my person, and around me were ethereal swords, planted into the ground. It was incredibly similar to my Reality Marble, and I could even make out the distinctive shapes of specific weapons, though they were made out of a translucent, golden light.

"I am Shirou Emiya." I said as I moved towards him. He stared in fear of me, looking at the glowing sunburst on my forehead which I somehow knew was there. "And I am the Dawn."


	2. Chapter 2

_Ok,_ I thought to myself as I patted the dirt on Archibald's makeshift grave. _Let's review_.

I should have died. Well, he said he wanted me alive for capture, so he probably had something to keep me from bleeding out, but my point still stands. I was completely out of magic, heavily injured and losing consciousness. And then… something happened.

I gave a tired sigh as I rubbed my forehead, on the spot where the glowing sunburst used to be. I still had no idea what this new power was or where it came from. It wasn't magic, or at least not quite. All I could tell was that it was some kind of energy, forming into a sort of pool inside of me, as opposed to my magic which was divided into circuits. Although I did most of it instinctively, I found that the energy could be channeled in a very similar way to magic, though the results were slightly different from what I was used to. I remember my form

**Dipping Swallow Defense**

as I blocked Archibald's attacks, the glow incasing my weapons

**One Weapon, Two Blows**

Which allowed me to cut through his Mystic code, and the physical enhancement

**Lightning Speed/Increased Strength Exercise**

I had gained.

I shook my head as if to clear the words that had been cluttering my mind for the past hour. All of those things I did with this new power apparently had names, though how I knew what they were was a complete mystery to me. The bundle of information that had come with this new power seemed to be just short of helpful at best and incomplete at worst. I knew the names of a few techniques, and I knew that the terms 'Solar', 'Dawn', and 'Exalted' now somehow apply to me, but I didn't know why or exactly what they are. It became particularly frustrating when I tried sort through all of this information and compare it to my own magic.

Mostly because when I did so, I somehow gained even more techniques.

While I dug Archibald's grave, I put most of my mental focus into analyzing this new power, particularly at the point where it seemed to 'touch' my circuits. I had paused in my digging to try Tracing a simple sword with the tiny amount of prana I recovered. As soon as I did, the other source reacted to it somehow, suddenly surging through me and causing a splitting headache. When it subsided, I found that my list of techniques had grown by a substantial margin. Judging by their names and the few I tested out, they seemed to all mimic my normal Tracing abilities in some aspect. Was it possible that this power can interact with my Reality Marble?

Most of what I found related into some way to battle or the crafting of objects, though I did find an odd one out. It seemed to be related to more to my general presence more than anything else. It was called **The Harem Must Be Fed**.

…Needless to say, I decided to ignore that one and hold off on the experimentation of the others till I got back to my workshop.

The… voice I guess I should call it was also disconcerting. It wasn't so much a voice as it was a presence, its nature being something I had processed into words. Both that and the information I had gained showed that there was at least some kind of intelligence behind this, even if it just was in my selection. I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling that it was a sick joke on the Root's part that it declared me a Champion of Justice.

As I started to walk back to the inn, I prayed that my newfound abilities wouldn't get me into any more trouble than I already was.

* * *

Later that night I was in the kitchen making dinner, though I was barely paying attention to what I was doing. I had found out once I got back to the inn that the second stage of the Sekirei plan had started, and Minaka had basically put the whole of Shin Tokyo under martial law to keep any Ashikabi or Sekirei from leaving the city. I had been making some plans to do just that given that the Clock Towers seemed to have found my location, but it looked like that wouldn't be an option anymore. On the plus side, it would probably make it harder for them to get into the city, but that would only help in the short term. And that still left the Sekirei Plan to deal with.

My thoughts turned to Uzume, who I ran into after changing my clothes. She had a small bit of blood on her pants, both fresh and clearly not her own. I supposed that it's not surprising that some Sekirei didn't care to play by the rules of the plan, and it made sense for Uzume considering the state of her Ashikabi. However, as much as I didn't want to admit it, it made her a much more dangerous potential enemy. I was going to have to keep a close eye on her in the future, and try to keep things as peaceful as possible between us.

Adding these things to the mystery of my new found superpowers and I had a rather large amount of work ahead of me in the near future. I had hoped to do some analysis as soon as I got back to my workshop, but I had become distracted with everything else that was going on. I did find out one interesting thing while I was changing, though: I had no scars. I don't mean that I had no scar from Archibald's attack; I mean I had no scars at all. All of the mark I had accumulated over the years, even the matching starburst ones on my chest and back had disappeared. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. On the one hand I wouldn't have to answer any awkward questions from people who might see my torso, but on the other I had come to consider them marks of accomplishment, proof that I had fought powerful creatures and lived. A bit macho I suppose, but still.

As I decided to put all that aside and focus on the meal, I then realized that I had been cutting the vegetables without a knife.

I blinked in surprise as I looked at the edge of my hand, with which I had been making copping motions with. I saw that it was lined with a golden glow. Turning my attention inwards, I noticed that my other power was flowing through me again, though not nearly as much as this afternoon. _What the…? Apparently, if I'm not careful, I can do this stuff reflexively. Just what am I doing anyway?_

As if my mental question triggered it, a name came to mind: **Craftsmen Need No Tool**s. _Wait, I thought that was a crafting technique…You can use it for cooking too?!_ In spite of myself, I considered the possibilities my newfound superpower might have for the field of cooking. Sure, being unstoppable in battle was all well and good, but being able to cook food on a level known only to the gods? That was something truly worthy of my attention.

Don't look at me like that. A man's got to have priorities.

As I wondered just how long I had been doing this, I heard Miya enter the kitchen behind me. "Emiya-kun, how fairs di- oh my heavens!"

"Miya?" I asked turning around "What's wr- What the hell?!"

The entire kitchen was filled with prepared food, and it wasn't just plain dinner. It seemed like a full five course meal fit for a king and most of his court. There was duck, chicken and fish covered in sauces, along with soup, rice, and assorted fruits and vegetables, all of which arranged in the most artful manner on their respective plates. Just as I was about to ask where this had come from, I suddenly realized that I had memories of preparing all of this. _I did all of this while I wasn't paying attention?_ I thought incredulously. _I must have cleaned out almost all of Miya's stock! And it's only__ been 30 minutes! The duck alone should have taken a few hours to prepare!_

Miya moved to the refrigerator and found that I had indeed cleared it out. She turned to me, a frown settling on her face. "Really Emiya-kun, I appreciate that you want to make a good meal, but this is just too much. There no way even the residents of this inn could eat all of this in one sitting. How do you expect us to eat tomorrow?"

"I'm sorry Miya," I said with an embarrassed look on my face. I was definitely going to have to pay more attention to what I'm doing from now on if I can use my new power reflexively. "I guess I got carried away. I'll go shopping tomorrow."

The landlady gave a huff as she walked around the kitchen looking at the spectacular meal I had prepared. "Honestly, your usually much more responsible than this. Though I have to admit, I'm curious as to how you prepared all this in half an hour."

"Uh…" I said as I tried to come up with an explanation that didn't involve my suddenly obtained and vaguely defined superpower. I briefly considered saying 'Magic' before I remembered I was trying to keep that a secret too.

As I was stalling, Miya idly took a small piece of fish off its plate and took a bite out of it. She suddenly when rigid, her eyes going wide and her face becoming flushed.

"Miya? Are you all right?" I asked with some concern. "Is there something wrong with the fish?" So help me, if I had somehow made all this food and it didn't taste good, it would be to my eternal shame as a chef.

My concern increased when I swore I could see tears welling up in her eyes, but that was dispelled when I heard her say in awe "It's perfect."

"What?"

"It's perfect!" she exclaimed in a very un-Miya like fashion. "It is the very essence flavor distilled into physical form!" She turned to me, her eyes wide and pledging. "You must teach me how to do this!"

I gaped at her, my mouth opening and closing as I tried to respond. "I… uh… I'm not sure I can."

"Sure you can! You must!" Miya then tilted her head to the side, and her tone changed to something smoother. And dangerous. "Or is motivation the problem?" she said as she moved slowly towards me, her hips moving in a rather interesting manner which I tried not to stare at. "I suppose there's no helping it, then. Takehito would forgive me if he knew what was at stake."

I fought down my panic as the incredibly powerful alien creature pressed herself against me and started to reach for places which I would rather not describe. As I tried to fend her off, I was certain that someone out there was laughing at me for this.

* * *

Zelretch laughed heartily as he saw the Emiya boy try to fend off the eldest Sekirei's advances. He observed the scene from a rooftop several blocks away with a pair of magically enchanted binoculars that ignored such petty things like 'distance' and 'walls'. He had managed to find the aftermath of the young man's fight with another magus and had observed him ever since the boy returned to the inn. Zelretch now had confirmation that the Exaltation had chosen him. The fact that the boy's first act with his new found abilities was to cook a meal so good that it caused the normally rather demure No.1 to try to sleep with him to gain his secrets almost made losing the Exaltation worth it right then and there. Of course, the sorcerer was sure that he would be getting plenty more entertainment over the next few weeks.

However, while the man was engrossed in the scene unfolding before him, one doesn't live as long as he had and not develop a rather keen sense for danger. It was for this reason (along with his multi-dimensional perception) that he disappeared in a flash of rainbow light an instant before the punch connected with the back of his head.

"You know, it's quite rude to interrupt a man as he's enjoying his entertainment." Zelretch said from his position at the opposite side of the roof. It was dark, but the vampire's eyes were able to see the figure clearly and they widened slightly in recognition. "Hmm, you were one of those people that was giving me such a hard time a few hours ago. I wasn't aware that you were capable of multidimensional travel."

The woman standing opposite from him was taller than average, with a long braid of ebony hair hanging to just below the waist. She was dressed in something similar to a dark blue monk gi, though it had an impressive amount of silver embroidery, as well as opening up around the bust and midriff. The woman herself had pale skin and dark eyes that seemed to glitter like stars in the low light. She answered him in an authoritative tone. "Neither was I, but you forced us to push our abilities father than we ever had to follow you. I never knew that sorcery could be used in such a manner, but I suppose it's of little consequence. Now, give back what you took."

Zelretch gave a sigh. "Really, I don't see why you're so mad at me. Those other ghastly fellows took 150 of them and I didn't see your lot bringing any wrath upon their heads. I only wanted one for study."

"The Deathlords shall be dealt with for breaking the Jade Prison, but that is of no matter to you." The woman retorted. "Just one Solar Exaltation can change the shape of the world. Fate cannot allow such an important power be removed from its design. It could potentially destroy the whole of Creation."

The sorcerer gave an amused chuckle. "You know, the thing about Fate is that there's a different one for each universe. And I've never listened to any of them." The woman narrowed her eyes in anger as he continued. "Besides, I couldn't give it back if I wanted to. It chose someone as soon as I got here."

The woman looked at him blankly for a moment before saying. "If I have to, I will kill the Lawbringer to obtain the Exaltation."

The old man's eyebrow rose at this statement. "You know what it means that it chose the person, don't you? They're a hero, someone who will use the power they have for good."

"It doesn't matter. The power of a Solar will corrupt them like all those before, and I doubt that there is anything in this reality that can stop a Solar Exalted mad with power."

The sorcerer frowned. "It looks like I can't convince you then. A shame. However," he said as the colors of the Kaleidoscope gathered around his person, "I have something of a vested interest in that person, so I'm afraid I can't let you do as you please. You should know better than to fight me. You saw what I did before and that's only a small part of what I'm capable of."

The woman merely gave a snort as she settled into a fighting stance. "Do not think you can cow me with your words, sorcerer. I am an unprecedented master of the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style, and thus am well versed in the use of parallel realities as a weapon. It was the reason only I could follow you. This city of steel and glass shall be your tomb if you fail to tell me where the Lawbringer is."

Zelretch gave a smile as he ignored the fact that he still hadn't recovered from his fight a few hours earlier. "I assure you I have seen and survived far worse than you and your kind in my life, and I plan to keep doing so. However, if you could indulge me with your name before we begin?"

"I am Aethiana Salence, Sidereal Exalted and Chosen of Battles." She said as she gathered her Essence to bear. "And you do not impress me."

With that the battle had begun.


	3. Chapter 3

I walked wearily down the street, trying to ignore the heaviness of my eyelids. I had first tried reasoning with Miya to keep her out of my pants, but that plan quickly failed when the rest of my flock entered the kitchen and saw what the two of us (or more accurately Miya) was doing. I had briefly hoped that they would help pry her off me, but unfortunately they got over their indignity of the situation rather fast and decided to take advantage of the landlady's new found leniency for lewd acts. Needless to say, I abandoned all hope of diplomacy at that point and promptly jumped out nearest window, running as fast as I could away from the inn. I didn't dare look back until a half hour later and found to my relief that there was no one following me. Nevertheless, I ended up spending the rest of the night in the city rather than risk going back to a building filled with dangerous women intent on ravishing me.

Come to think of it, that happened a few times back in London, too.

It was shortly after dawn that I found myself a few blocks away from the Izumo House, fervently hoping that my cooking's apparent aphrodisiac qualities had worn off by then. My silent prayers were interrupted however, when I suddenly picked up a new scent.

It was a strong scent, and yet somehow ethereal, like it was being carried on a strong wind. Beyond this somewhat paradoxical description, I couldn't tell anything else about it. It was completely unlike anything else I had ever sensed before. It definitely wasn't a Sekirei; I could tell that much was certain. Was it a magus? Given the shear variety of types of magic and the personal traits that were inherent in each Magi's magecraft, it was possible that this was the scent of a magic user, though they certainly didn't seem to practice any form of magic that was common to the Clock Tower.

Slowly and carefully, I ducked into an alley as I followed the scent. It was stationary for the moment, and I felt it would be a better idea to get a look at who or what this thing might be. If it was a threat, now might be the best time to take care of it. They alley was a strangely winding one, wedged between two irregularly shaped buildings. That was why I was closer than I would have liked to the person when I rounded a sharp corner into a narrow part of the alleyway.

It appeared to be a woman with pale skin and a long braid of black hair. Her pants were dark blue with a silver lining, and I could see a corresponding top on the ground next to her. The reason she wasn't wearing the top was so that she could more easily wrap the bandage she was holding around her torso. She moved with a stiffness that indicated pain, and I could see a number of red blotches seeping through the cloth.

I took all of this in within a few moments, as then the woman turned towards me. I ducked back behind the corner, but I was too late.

"Who's there?" The woman said in a tone that could have cut steel. "I'm in no mood for any common thief that might think me an easy mark."

As I felt the scent get stronger, I made a snap decision. I stepped back around the corner to face her, my hands up in a placating gesture. "Stay calm." I said. "I mean you no harm." I figured that if I ran, there was a chance she would pursue, and that could lead to innocent people getting involved. I still didn't know what here intentions were, so I figured it would be best to try to be diplomatic first. Of course, I wasn't a fool; the hammer that represented my magecraft was already cocked in the back of my mind, and I was ready to trace a weapon at a moment's notice.

The woman's eyes narrowed at me, and I could tell from her posture that she didn't let down her guard in the slightest. "What do you want? Or was I just incompetent at hiding myself?"

I paused carefully for a moment before I said "Who are you? And what are you doing in Shin Tokyo?" She clearly wasn't after me, so she must have had some other motive for being here.

Her dark eyes glittered like stars as she appraised me. "I don't see how that is any of your concern. And for that matter, how do you know that I'm not from Shin Tokyo?" she asked with suspicion.

I quickly replied "Well, you don't exactly look like you're from around here. That usually means trouble in my experience." I was not sure enough of what she was to mention magic to her yet.

She stared at me intensely for a few moments longer before giving a small shrug and relaxing slightly. "I suppose that's not too unreasonable. My name is Aethiana Salence. As for why I'm here, well, do you happen to know anything about a sorcerer named Zelretch?"

I felt my body stiffen at the mention of the Wizard Marshal's name. At least now I knew she's aware of magic.

Unfortunately for me, Aethiana noticed how I had become rigid. "Ah, it seems that you do. Tell me, where might I find him?" This sounded more like an order than I would have liked.

I blinked in mild surprise at this question. "How am I supposed to know? The man spends most of his time in alternate dimensions." How did she know who Zelretch was but didn't know that about him?

Her eyes narrowed again as the tension returned. "Boy, if you are lying to me-argh!" While she was speaking, she swiftly moved into a fighting stance, most likely to intimidate me. However, she underestimated the extent of her wounds as the motion caused her to cry out in pain and fall to her knees. I could see the red on the bandages across her chest increase in size.

Without thinking, I rushed to her side. "Don't move! You're in no state to move around, let alone fight!" With care, I propped her body up against the side of the alley and started to tend to her reopened wounds as much as I could. There was still a little extra bit of bandage left next to her discarded top, so I used it to replace the bit that had become too soaked to function.

After a minute or so of me tending to the woman, her breathing became more even and less strained. She then asked "Why are you helping me?" Looking at her face, I saw a look of confusion in her eyes. "I was trying to threaten you a minute ago."

I gave a small shrug. "You're hurt. You need my help. That's a good enough reason for me."

It must have been a trick of the early morning light, because I could had sworn I saw two faint spots of red on her face. She looked down slightly as she said "Well, most people aren't like that."

"Well, I'm not most people." I replied, finishing up my work. "Now, how exactly did you get into this state, anyway?"

She looked off to the side in mild embarrassment. "It seems I… underestimated my opponent. The old sorcerer was more competent in combat than I assumed."

"What?!" I said incredulously. "You actually fought Zelretch? And lived? Why?" Seriously, anyone in their right mind would never even think about challenging the old man. Also, I did not like the implication that he was in the city.

She returned her gaze to me. "He took something that did not belong to him. I went to get it back. Unfortunately, he didn't have it on him."

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to find him again and make him tell me where it is." Aethiana said with grim determination. "It could be anywhere in Creation, and he's the only one who knows where."

I gave a frown as I stood up. "Not in your current state you're not. Honestly, I would think that… wait, are you even from the Mage's Association?"

She looked at me for a moment uncertainly before she said "No."

"You… do know what the Mage's Association is, right?"

She continued to look at me in silence, and I fought down a brief surge of panic. _Oh, please tell me that I didn't just __reveal__ the secret of magic to a non-magus_, I thought. "At least tell me that you're a magus." I said desperately.

"I'm not familiar with the term," she said slowly, "But if you're asking me if I can use magic, then yes, I suppose that is true."

I gave a sigh of relief. Still, it was incredibly strange that a magus had no idea what the Mage's Association even was. I know that there are a number of practitioners of magecraft that preferred to be independent, but they usually at least knew about it. For Aethiana to be so ignorant, she would have to be from a very isolated and recluse sect. Judging by her attire, I would guess somewhere in China, though I couldn't be certain. There were problems with that theory too, given that while she did look somewhat Asian it wasn't quite right, as well as her obviously non-Chinese name. And the fact that she seemed to speak perfect Japanese. "Where are you from?" I asked.

Her face became blank. "Far away."

"How did you get into the city?"

"I have my ways."

My mouth twisted a bit as I thought about this. I suppose I could understand someone being reluctant to divulge secrets about themselves, but I still only had a vague idea of who this person was. "So, what are you going to do now? And I don't mean going after Zelretch as he's likely long gone by now (hopefully), I mean in the next five minutes, what are you going to do?"

Aethiana's brow furrowed a bit. "Well, once I'm good enough to move, I'm going to find a healer to do something about these wounds. Surely in a city this large there must be a few."

I was about to tell her where the nearest hospital was (and _what_ a hospital was) when a thought occurred to me. "That… might not be such a good idea." I said slowly. "The hospital will be wondering why you don't have any form of identification on you. MBI will find out as they either own all the hospitals or are monitoring them closely, and then they'll be wondering who you are and how you got into the city. And trust me, MBI can get unpleasant when they're trying to get to the bottom of a mystery." I said as I thought back to the first time I met Tamaki and Karasuba.

She gave a grimace at this. "Well, then I just have to find a way to do it myself."

I felt my sense of morals tugging at me, demanding I help this woman in some way. After a few moments of silence, I said "If you found a new species of sapient magical creatures, what part would you start to dissect first?"

"What?!" she said in shock at my sudden and morbid change in topic. "Why would I do that?! No one in their right mind who found a new species of intelligent beings would think about that!"

"Good." I replied. I had suspected that since she had never heard of the Mage's Association, there was a good chance she didn't have the same attitude that they did when it came to experimentation. "I'm sorry for being so rude, but I needed to know what kind of magus you were."

"Why?" She asked with a hint of irritation.

I gave her a warm smile as I knelt down. "How would you like to stay with me until you're healed?"

* * *

Zelretch chuckled to himself as he observed the Emiya boy carry Aethiana down the street in a bridle carry. He had to admit, even he didn't see this one coming. Sure, he put a translation spell on the woman without her noticing during their fight last night because he wanted to see her get into some wacky hijinks, but this? Oh yes, losing the Exaltation was definitely going to be worth the show he was about to see. _I wonder which will happen first? Her finding out he's the Exalted she's looking for, or her succumbing to his__ unintentional__ charms and joining that harem of his?_ Of course, the Emiya boy wouldn't even be thinking about things like that.

After all, if he was he would have noticed the blush on Aethiana's face.

As Zelretch put the binoculars away, he felt a sharp pain in his torso which caused him to wince. He didn't want to admit it, but the Sidereal had put up a better fight than he thought she would. Her Obsidian Shards of Infinity style wasn't as diverse and powerful as his own Kaleidoscope, but it was surprisingly effective. She had managed to see through and counter many of his little tricks with her own probability manipulation. Add that to the fact that he was already tired and injured from his fight with several of her Sidereal companions before that and he ended up being forced to get serious for a few seconds at the end.

He gave a grimace as he started to scan the skyline for the nearest hospital. The fastest way for him to heal would be to make a little visit to the blood storage refrigerators that all hospitals had. The sorcerer disliked drinking blood and avoided it whenever possible, but since he was in a modern society at the moment, he could get it fairly easily and with minimal ethical problems.

_Besides_, he thought to himself, _Now is not a good time to be caught off guard_. Normally, he would be content to take the few days necessary to get back his health, but there was something… wrong. It was hard to describe, but something about the Kaleidoscope was off. I wasn't the magic itself, rather it was the fabric of spacetime wherever he tried looking. The Kaleidoscope twisted and swirled when he used it, like currents of water over uneven rocks.

It wasn't enough to impede him, but he knew that it should be much gentler. This was like reality was ready to open a new hole in itself if pushed too hard. It was… disconcerting to say the least. He needed to study it and soon.

Zelretch just hoped that it wasn't somehow his fault.

* * *

Yu-Shan. The Celestial city where the gods live and the Celestial Bureaucracy runs the whole of Creation. It is a beautiful city where the streets are paved with jade and gold, and even the most meager dwellings are towering mansions. Several thousand miles across, it is home to an innumerable number of spiritual entities, each more fantastic than any normal man could ever hope to see.

This pristine vision of majesty was marred somewhat by a figure fleeing the Bureau of Heaven building as fast as he could, a wide grin on his face as he shouted "I regret nothing!"

Perhaps some context is in order.

The entity in question is Lytek, the Right Hand of Power and God of Exaltation. There is in fact a good deal he regrets, but he was not thinking of those things at the moment. Back during the First Age, he was one of the most powerful gods in Yu-Shan, due to his purview over the Exalted shards which secured their freedom from the primordials. This changed, however, when the Usurpation came. The Solars had gone mad, and it was decided that they had to be killed and their Exaltations locked away in the Jade Prison. This ended up reducing Lytek's power quite a bit and he had lost his position in the Bureau of Heaven, the office which oversaw the affairs of the gods themselves. Now his position belonged to some stooge appointed by Ryzala, the Goddess of Paperwork.

However, it looked like things were about to change. The destruction of the Jade Prison, while worrying, was a second chance for Lytek. It looked like he would rise to prominence once again. Of course, someone had to be the one to tell Ryzala about this. Lytek volunteered.

Let it be known that gods are not above petty gloating. Really, much of the universe makes a lot more sense when this is taken into account.

In any case, that was the reason the god made out of light was running away from some of Ryzala's goons. Fortunately for him, as he didn't actually do anything wrong, they could only pursue him till he left the building.

As Lytek slowed and the elation of rubbing it in the face of that stuck up hag wore off, the god reflected that he was rather lucky that chasing him was all they did. Even after his fall from grace, there were a number of people (Ryzala included) that would have preferred him to disappear entirely. Since the end of the First Age, there had been a number of attempts to do just that. Now that he was in a position to retake his old job…

The god shook his head. Really, it was stupid of him to so openly appear and taunt one of his opponents. He just couldn't help it.

It was a good while later that he returned to his fairly modest residence (modest by Yu-Shan standards, in any case). Upon arriving in his work area, he found it cluttered with a number of papers and missives that had arrived during his absence. He gave a sigh as he wondered how many were from the goddess who he just so royally ticked off. He put all that out of his mind as he turned to his cabinet.

That cabinet was where all Solar Exaltations went after the death of person it was attached to. It was his job to inspect them clean them of memories. Normally only he could access it, but as both the Usurpation and today's events proved, they could be intercepted before they reached it. Opening the cabinet, he found 149 shards inside. I vexed him what those long dead ghosts in the Underworld were doing to his work, but oddly enough it was the last one that had him the most concerned. He didn't have all the details, but apparently someone from _outside_ Creation had show up out of nowhere, taken one of the shards and just disappeared to whence he came. Lytek at least roughly knew where the other 150 were, but that one was could be anywhere.

He closed the cabinet and decided to leaf through the pile of papers in hope that one of them contained information on what was done to find the missing shard. As he sifted through the mess, he came across a number of vaguely threading letters detailing why he should dispose of the shards he had and how the Solars must never be allowed to walk Creation again.

He gave a sigh as he continued his search. It wasn't the Solars' fault, really. Lytek knew what was wrong with them, even if he didn't know the why or how. Back towards the end of the First Age, he had discovered some kind of flaw or corruption in the Exaltation. It seemed that over time, the Solars virtues became twisted, distorting the person until they were only a twisted mockery of what they once stood for. He had though he could fix it before it became a problem.

He was wrong.

Now, he couldn't tell anyone about it, as his negligence to tell the Unconquered Sun before the Solars went mad would mean his death.

Lytek's morose thoughts were interrupted when he found the report he was looking for. He skimmed over the document to see just what was being done to find his missing shard.

'The sorcerer seemed to have an advanced form of magic based on the manipulation of possible realties. It is believed this was the method he used to enter and exit Creation. This theory is strengthened by the evidence of a probabilistic fluctuation-' _Yes, yes, less talking more action. Ah here we are_. 'It is for these reasons it is believed that the outsider can be followed to his current location given the trace amount of magic left behind. Aethiana Salence, Chosen of the Maidens was selected for the operation due to her mastery of the Obsidian Shards of Infinity style. She was sent through the probabilistic rift via her own skill as well as the aid of all 5 Maidens and-'

Lytek blinked in surprise as he read the end of the sentence. "-and the effort of the 99 remaining Sidereal Exalted."

A small sense of doom crept up the god's spine. Over the past 1000 years, ever since the fall of the Solars, he had been keeping an eye on the rest of the Exalted to see if they exhibited similar flaws. So far he hadn't seen anything too bad, but he noticed an odd little quirk when it came to the Sidereals. He didn't know if it was because their Exaltation was flawed or it was just a weird quirk of Fate.

The thing was, the number of Sidereals involved in any plan was somehow always directly proportional to just how catastrophically it went wrong.

"Oh dear."


	4. Chapter 4

"You know, it's been a long time since someone had the nerve to try to carry me like this." Aethiana said dryly.

I looked down at the woman I had in a bridle carry with an arched eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"The last man who tried to do so as a sudden romantic gesture ended up having his arms inexplicably broken."

"I wonder how…" I deadpanned. I had only been carrying the woman for a few blocks, but I had already gotten the impression that she wasn't used to dealing with people very often. It had taken her a full two minutes after carrying her out of the alleyway for her to even think of asking my name. "In any case, we're here." I said as I walked up to the gate of the Izumo Inn.

Aethiana had a look of mild surprise on her face as she looked at the building. "Really? It's very different from the other building I have seen in this city. It almost looks… familiar."

"Yes, the landlady prefers old fashioned styles." I said, filing away her comment for later thought. "You won't have worry about payment; she never turns away someone in need. If fact, if you're feeling up to it, she'll be glad to treat you to break-"

It was at this point that I remember that there was no food in the house due to my inexplicable cooking spree last night. I also remembered that the reason I hadn't gotten around to replacing what I had used was because I was too busy running away from women who had some rather unsettling ideas of what to do with my chastity.

"Shirou?" Aethiana asked as she saw the blood suddenly drain from my face. "Why am I suddenly getting a sense of foreboding from you?"

I swallowed nervously. "Oh, no reason." I said as I walked to the front door. I could only hope that Miya had come to her senses by now, but what of the rest of my flock? If my food managed to put Miya in such a state, what could it have done to the far less restrained members of the household? "On a completely unrelated note, if I'm suddenly dragged away by a group of busty women intent on ravishing me, don't worry about it too much."

"Wait, what?" She said in alarm, but at that point I was already opening the door.

"I'm back." I said hesitantly to the open air. A little more forcefully, I continued "Miya, I brought someone that needs help."

After a moment, the landlady walked into the hallway, though she appeared distressed and uncertain.

She wasn't jumping me and demanding the secrets of my cooking and/or my pants. This was a good sign.

Her expression changed to confusion when she noticed the woman in my arms. She then gave me an exasperated look. "Really Emiya-kun, you winged another one while you were out? I would have thought that would be the last thing on your mind considering…" Miya trailed off awkwardly.

I shook my head. "I assure you, there was no winging last night. Aethiana here is a normal human being." Said human being looked up at me curiously due to my terminology. I had given her a very brief description on the Sekirei to let her know what to expect over the next few days, but I didn't let any specifics slip. I thought it would be best to keep the fact that she knows about the alien species a secret for the time being. Otherwise, someone in the inn might start asking rather awkward questions about how she knew, and that could lead to them finding out about our status as magi.

Surprisingly enough, I also had to tell my newfound companion about the secrecy of magic. Aethiana seemed somewhat confused as to why magic had to be kept a secret as she thought everyone knew about it. When I asked her about just how much she knew about the world though, she became silent rather quickly. I guess wherever she came from was even more isolated than I thought.

As Miya's confused look returned, I continued to explain. "I found her injured in an alleyway. She can't go to a hospital because she somehow managed to sneak into the city without MBI noticing. If they find her at the hospital, things will get… unpleasant."

The eldest Sekirei gave me a small frown. "So you decided to help the person with a mysterious background you've only just met by taking her to where you live?"

"Uhh… yes?" I said uncertainly. "I know that it's your home, and I'm sorry if I'm being presumptuous, but she really doesn't have anywhere else to go."

Miya looked at me for a moment long before shaking her head with a small sigh, a faint smile on her lips as she did so. "You are truly an interesting man, Emiya-kun." She said. I wasn't sure why, but I felt like I missed the point somewhere. Looking back at me, she said "Very well. My husband would not want me turning away those in need. Come." As we walked down the hall to an empty room, she turned back to me. "How did she get hurt?"

"She ran into some of the… not so normal residents of the city while they were fighting. She was caught in some of the collateral damage." I didn't like lying to Miya, but I didn't have much of a choice in the situation.

Aethiana gave a small snort at this, muttering indignantly under her breath. As I laid her down on a futon in a spare room, she turned her head to Miya. "I believe that a proper introduction for myself is in order. I am Aethiana Salence, and I am… let's say a solver of exotic problems. I thank you deeply for your care and hospitality." She inclined her head as much as she could at this, giving a small wince as she did so.

The landlady gave the injured woman a small smile, crinkling her eyes as she did so. "Ara, such a polite young woman! I am Miya Asama, and you are free to stay here until your better. I will talk to you more in moment, but I'm afraid that I need to talk to Emiya-kun alone first." She looked nervously at me for a second before taking hold of my arm and guiding me out of the room.

"Wait! Can you first explain what you meant about the thing with the busty woman and ravishing?" The prone woman asked with some concern at my departing form.

I gave a dejected sigh. "No, I don't think I can."

As Miya and I walked into the dining room, an uncomfortable silence settled between us and we thought about last night. "Miya-san, I-"

"Shirou, I must apologize for my behavior last night." I stopped in surprise, both at the sudden apology and her use of my first name. "It was completely unbecoming of me, and I shouldn't have put you in such an uncomfortable position." As she said this, the normally confident Sekirei looked down at the floor, having a hard time looking me in the eyes.

I looked at her for a moment before rubbing the back of my head. "Well, err, don't worry about it." I eventually said. "I've been getting used to that sort of thing lately. Though if I might ask, why, uh, exactly did you…" I trailed off.

Miya began to blush heavily, looking off to the side with her hand on her cheek. "It was _really_ good food…" she muttered.

Any hope I had at being indignant at the woman for last night completely dissolved right there. There was no way that Miya should be able to look that cute. Also, the glowing appreciation of my food (which technically got us into this position in the first place) was a nice ego boost.

I had to do something about this, and fast. There was already and excessive amount of adorable with Kuu-chan and Musubi around. "Well, I suppose I could try teaching you what I did…" I said slowly.

The landlady looked back at me in surprise for a moment before a beaming smile formed on her face. "I would like that, Shirou." She said. Just as quickly as it came though, her face returned to its customary crinkled eyes expression. "Of course, you still need to go shopping for food before you do so, Emiya-kun."

I gave a tried sigh. "I'm exhausted. I don't suppose I could do it later, could I?"

"Of course. However, if you do that and went against your promise to get more food for breakfast, then I'll just have to get it myself. In that case, I won't be around for when the rest of the girls in the house find that you've come back."

I stiffened at the thought of being left alone with my flock without Miya to keep them inline. "Uh, Miya? Did they happen to eat any of the food I made last night as well?"

The landlady merely smiled at me benignly.

Needless to say, I was sprinting out the door five seconds later.

* * *

With a groan I stumbled to my bed and collapsed onto it in complete exhaustion. After shopping to restock the entire kitchen, I had absolutely no energy left. As soon as I got back to the inn, I dropped off the food in the kitchen and stumbled to my room, completely ignoring anyone who tried to talk to me.

At that point, I didn't care what they did to my body so long as I could sleep through it.

So long… as I could… get… some…

_I stood at the top of a hill, overlooking as small rural town, architecture befitting of stereotypical feudal farming village. I turned my gaze around, and behind me there was a small contingent of men and women, armored in a way that enforced the feudal Japan ascetic, though I could tell that this wasn't Japan. While similar, the designs were much more elaborate than what I knew of armor from such times, and seemed to incorporate bits of Chinese and Western elements into its design. There was also something else about it, something… more. There was a power inherent to that armor, something I could only grasp the surface of. If only I could…_

_As I heard footsteps from the other direction, my head involuntary turned, and found another man running towards me from the direction of the village. He was less armored than the rest, though he was clearly part of the same group that was behind me. Upon reaching me he gave a quick salute and said "The reports were true, General Harmonious Blades. The village shows signs of Wyld corruption."_

_I hear myself give a sigh. "I suppose this is not to be entirely unexpected, given how close to the edge of Creation we are. Are there any signs of weakness in the barrier?"_

"_No General, at least nothing overt." The man replied. "Our sorcerers are investigating as best they can, but they think that something may have slipped trough from the Wyld."_

"_Such as?"_

_The man looked uncomfortable for a moment. "We're not sure, but given what I've found out from the villagers, I suspect that there might be one of the Fair Folk hiding among them."_

_I felt my features harden. "Have they started to display mutations?"_

"_Well, yes, but they are clearly still in the early stages, with just a few minor or even cosmetic changes. If we move them away from the edge for a short while, I'm sure that the Fair Folk will-"_

"_No." I heard myself say._

"_Sir?"_

"_The village has been corrupted. Therefore, it must be purged."_

_I felt shocked at my own declaration, and the emotion clearly mirrored by the man in front of me. "W-what?! You can't be serious, General! These people have barely been affected! If we just-"_

_I heard myself cut him off. "If there one of the Fair Folk among them, then it is likely it has already cursed them with Wyld addiction. It is only a matter of time before both their bodies and minds degrade and become slaves or abominations."_

"_But you can't possibly know that! Maybe if you wait for the rest of your Circle to return from the Blessed Isle-"_

"_Jonerath." I heard myself say in a cold tone. "What is the purpose of the Dragon-Blooded?"_

_He looked down at the ground, his hands balling into fists. "To serve the Solar Exalted, my lord."_

"_And yet you question me." I saw myself reach out and touch the man on the shoulder, a smile appearing on my face as I did so. "Do not despair. We are freeing these people from the suffering they would otherwise have to endure. Remember, this is all for the greater good of Creation."_

_The man didn't seem particularly convinced of my words, but nevertheless nodded. "I… I understand, General."_

"_Good." I found myself turning around to face the rest of the company behind me. "This village had been corrupted by the Wyld, done by the work of the Fair Folk." I heard myself announce in a loud voice. "For the good of this kingdom and Creation, we will purge it. There are to be no survivors. Am I understood?"_

_There was an uncomfortable silence as the men and women looked at each other uncertainly. I heard myself say again in a much colder tone "Am I understood?!" This time I was greeted with a collective 'Oyra!' _

"_Good." I heard myself say as I saw twin swords made of light form in my hands. "Then let us begin."_

_I wanted to stop myself, wanted to keep the horrible atrocity from happening, but I couldn't. I watched helplessly as I saw the armored men and women cast fire and boulders at the village, burning and pulverizing anything in their way. I watch in horror as I saw myself cut down anyone I could find, whether they attacked me, ran, or begged for their lives. I watched and could do nothing._

_As my body moved itself into a building, I heard a faint crying from a room in the back. My swords dispersed, and I found myself walking into a small bedroom which had a little girl crying in the corner. When she saw me, she ran over and latched onto my leg. "Make the bad men go away!" she cried._

_Looks like she didn't know that I had been the one to tell them to burn her home to the ground._

_I found myself kneeling down, bringing me to eye level. I noticed that the girl had a small pair of horns on her head, and her eyes were a strange color. I saw my hand reach out and cup the side of her cheek. "Don't be frightened, little one." I heard myself say, and a warm smile appeared on my face._

_The girl looked at me happily, now assured that everything was going to be alright._

_My hand drifted down to her neck. "You won't have to suffer anymore."_

_CRACK._

I bolted upright on the futon, a small scream escaping from my throat.

"What the hell was that?!"


	5. Chapter 5

As I sat at an outdoor table at a small café in downtown Shin Tokyo, I held my head in my hands as I tried once again to fruitlessly piece together what was happening to me. It had been a few days since my fight with Archibald and my unusual abilities started manifesting. Things had managed to settle down at the inn somewhat, though it seems that my flock's interest in bedding me had increased of late. It might have been Miya's momentary lapse in judgment, my truly spectacular cooking display, or some combination of both that resulted in my assorted Sekirei trying more brazen attempts to get me out of my clothes. Thankfully, the landlady did her best to keep their amorous plans from coming to fruition as always, though I half suspected that it came from a desire to keep me in once piece so she could learn my cooking secrets. Since I managed to keep better control of myself, I had so far not replicated my 'king's feast in half an hour' stunt, but for better or worse, the food I made was, to put it simply, perfect. So perfect in fact that I had to stop cooking for the inn in general before their flavor-inspired rapture turned the dining room into a den of debauchery as they tried to show appreciation for my cooking prowess. I suppose I could just intentionally make my meals subpar, but unfortunately the chef in me would not stand for such heresy.

I rubbed my eyes as I tried to clear those thoughts from my head. As serious as my concerns of my perfectly crafted lust inducing food were, I had bigger concerns on my mind at the moment. Namely, the nightmares I had been having.

To be fair, not all of my dreams since that day had been nightmares, but a good number of them had been rather unpleasant, and all of them had been from the perspective of a man in a world vastly different from my own. The most striking thing about the man himself (named Harmonious Blades of all things) was that he used the same abilities which I had recently obtained. At first I had started to wonder if these visions were just the product of my overworked mind, my subconscious just trying to make some kind of narrative to fit my new power into. However, the more I watch them and thought about it, the more I came to believe that these were memoires instead.

For one thing, I had never been very creative as far as narratives went. Sure I could think up some interesting blades or tactics, but that doesn't exactly translate to having my subconscious dream up incredibly elaborate fictional worlds. Indeed, everything I had seen from the memories so far painted a very detailed but foreign description of a world that was not the one I lived in. What little mythology I managed to pick up was completely alien to me, as well as places and creatures that could not possibly exist on this planet.

Given this, it was clear that these were memories from someone from a different dimension. There was only one reason I could think of for having suddenly gained them, and that little hypothesis was all but confirmed by the strange woman I had taken into the inn: Zelretch. The Wizard Marshal was well know for pulling pranks on people involving putting the memories from one version of them into another and watching the ensuing chaos. Given the fact that a day after I gained my new abilities I ran into Aethiana in pursuit of the man, I couldn't help but think that she was somehow involved in this too.

Still, it didn't add up. From what I've heard, these sorts of memory transfers should be abrupt and cause an almost instant change in personality as the original's memories are removed in the process. Not only did I still have all of mine, but the new ones only came in fragments, mostly when I was dreaming. I could tell there was more, but I couldn't access them directly. It didn't seem like Zelretch's style to give me some partial memories and leave me mildly confused.

Whatever the case, I figured I should be grateful that I have taken on that other person's personality. It was hard to tell due to the fragmented and non-linear natured of the visions, but it seemed that Harmonious Blades, while starting out as a decent man, went insane at some point later in life. He committed horrible atrocities in the name of the 'greater good', but often did so when other options were available, or when the act wasn't even necessary at all. I could only guess that he had become so entrenched in the idea that a few must be sacrificed for the many that he forgot there were times where you actually could save everyone. Of course, that assumption was colored by my own fear of what just might become of myself later in life. I had thought Archer was the worst I could have possibly turned out, but what if this happened to me instead? I knew it was unlikely, but it still worried me.

I leaned back from my hunched over position and gave a frown, considering just what I should do next. At that moment, the only person who I could think of that could explain what was happening to me would be Zelretch. Normally I wouldn't even consider the possibly, but given all that had happened, there was a good chance he was about in this dimension at the moment. That meant Aethiana and I now had a shared goal, but I intended to get some more information out of her before I trusted her.

However, in the more immediate future, I was going to order some lunch. I had an hour or so before I had to get to my next repair appointment, so now would probably be the best time to relax before I once again had to deal with the numerous things that plagued my existence. I finally picked up the menu in front of me and pushed thoughts of broken washing machines, busty alien harems, mysterious new powers and insane memories out of my mind, trying to enjoy the relative peace of the moment.

Naturally, that's when I heard the screaming.

My head whipped around to look behind me, and I saw a number of people running around the corner of a nearby intersection in a hysterical panic. I had a brief moment to wonder if a Sekirei battle had spilled into the streets again when _it_ came around the corner. It was…

Well, if I had to give it a name, I would have called it a Were-panther. It had a humanoid body, but it was covered in black fur and had the muzzle of a feline. Its oversized forearms ended in large paws tipped with sharp looking claws, and it's feet were similarly shaped. Powerful yet lean muscles across its frame gave the creature a sleek, deadly grace as it vaulted onto the roof of a nearby car, letting out a primal roar as it did so.

I blinked in surprise at the strange creature. I remembered Rin once giving me a small lecture on Phantasmal Species, and she had listed Werewolves as among their number, but they were supposed to be a very secluded species. In addition, given that this being was clearly more feline than lupine meant that this was at best some kind of distant relative to those demi-humans. But still, what was it doing in the middle of Shin Tokyo of all places?

I was snapped out my thoughts as the creature leap down and stalked towards a couple who had become frozen with fear. It was hard to tell from the distance and the shape of the thing's muzzle, but I could swear that it had a feral grin on its face as it looked at the terrified pair.

Without thinking, I exploded from seat and ran in a full sprint across the street towards them, Reinforcing my body as I did so. A moment later I felt the familiar weight of Kanshou and Bakuya settling into my hands. I also felt the Light (as I had come to call my new power source) rise up within me with the blades' creation, but I didn't try to reach for it. I was still uncertain of what its effects on me might be, so I had decided to limit its use as much as possible. Nevertheless, when I closed the distance and slashed at the Were-panther, I could see that my blade had a light, golden sheen to it.

However, in spite of my own speed, the creature noticed and dodged backwards before I could take its head off at the shoulders. Its speed was impressive, and reminded me of the movements of a Dead Apostle I had fought back during my time with the Enforcers. It narrowed its milky white eyes at me and growled something that sounded like a language, thought I couldn't understand what it said. I placed myself between it and the couple, my swords brought to bear in front of me. The creature lashed out at me with its claws, but was unable to get inside my guard, resulting in a few lacerations on its arms. With a roar of frustration, the thing backed away before turning around and sprinting back the way it came.

I used the brief respite to turn to the civilians behind me and say "Get indoors and hide. Now!" The man shakily nodded his head and grabbed the woman by the shoulders, pulling her with him and running the other way.

I of course had no intention of leaving it at just that. I ran to pursue creature, but upon rounding the corner myself I found it to be nowhere in sight. There was a small trail of destruction leading up the street with a number of people running around in various states of panic. When I saw a few bodies lying in the street in pools of blood, I could feel a hot rage begin to build in my chest.

I had no idea where it went, or where it came from for that matter. I needed a better vantage point, so I ducked into an alley and climbed up to the roof via the fire escape (much faster than a normal human could due to my Reinforcement). I paused briefly when I got to the rooftop, closing my eyes and listening for anything that might help. Off to the east, I thought I heard the sound of more screaming, so I went in that direction. A few buildings over, I found myself looking back down at the street at the source of the destruction, though it wasn't what I was expecting.

It looked like there were more of these half animal things in the city, but they were all different types. There was a massive Were-boar that was half again my height and almost as wide that was knocking cars over with its bare hands. There was another one that looked like some kind of rodent that was much smaller than the others. There was even a green fish-looking one that looked like it came from one of those old 'black lagoon' movies. Those three were the only ones I could see at the moment; the panther was nowhere in sight. I started to wonder just how many of these things there were.

As if to answer my question, my instincts suddenly screamed at me to move and I rolled to my left, but not before a taloned foot raked my side. Springing to my feet, I found myself face to face with yet another one of these creatures, this one a cross between a man and a bird of prey. It had a sharp, hooked beak on its face and its feet were that of a raptor's (with razor sharp talons as my now bleeding side could attest). The rest was the shape of a tall, lean man, but was covered in small yellow feathers. This was starting to get absurd. Were these things Phantasmal Species at all? Maybe they were some kind of experiment gone wrong by MBI? _Just what the hell are these_

_Abominations are really starting to tire me_, I thought to myself as I casually duck under another lash of tentacles before slicing them to bits. _Its times like these I start to wish we h__ad forged our kingdom somewhere farther away from the Wyld. _My blades of light sunk into the flesh of the corrupted creature and I gave a mental sigh. _Three Suns Rising is going to yell at me again for not learning Order-Affirming Blow, but studying lore h__as never really been my_

My senses suddenly snapped back to the rooftop and I found the bird creature launching itself at me again. I only had time to blink in surprise before it's foot connected with my chest and sent me tumbling backwards. I mentally cursed to myself as I tried to get back on my feet. I had never had a memory fragment that coherent come to me when I was awake before, and I had certainly never had one that was so vivid that I forgot my surroundings either. On the one hand, I suppose it told me where these things came from (sort of). Of course on the other it didn't really tell me how to fight them and just left me open for attack.

Things went from bad to worse as the Abomination (as I now knew it was called) pressed the attack with a series of quick kicks that keep me off balance. As I stumbled backwards, I ended up going too far and pitched over the side of the roof.

The building wasn't particularly tall at 6 stories, and I knew that I would be able to survive it with my Reinforcement, but unfortunately I was falling into the street with the three other Abominations in it. While I would live through the fall, if I didn't find some way to slow or control it, I would end up in a position unable to defend myself from the assorted monsters.

As I flipped in midair, I reversed my grip on Kanshou and Bakuya. When my front faced the side of the building I plunged my blades forward into the wall in an attempt to slow my decent. It didn't work quite as well as I hoped; I had tumbled a short distance from the surface so I could only stick the blades in halfway with my reach. My speed did decrease, but I felt pain in my arms from the awkward extension. I hit the sidewalk heavily, but on my feet.

It was lucky that I did too, as a moment later the rat Abomination leaped at me with the intent of sinking its claws into my face. It's body was much smaller than the others', only about half of my own height, so I was able to arrest it's movement by bringing Kanshou up between us and stopped it in mid air. I tried to counter attack, but this one was wary and immediately sprung backwards against the blade as soon as his forward momentum stopped.

I stood still with my guard up as I tried to take stock of my situation. It didn't last long though, as movement from the corner of my eye brought my attention to the boar Abomination that was now charging at me. The situation was further complicated by the fact that there was a car between the two of us. The creature gave a great roar as it smashed its fist into the car, sending it hurdling in my direction.

Fortunately for me, the thing had given it a bit too much lift. Using every last bit of flexibility I had, I dropped my stance and slid my leg out on the ground, fluidly sliding under the wreck while still staying on my feet. The boar Abomination was on me by the time the car smashed into the storefront behind me, but I jumped with all of my strength and sailed over the creature before it could flatten me. I managed to slash it with both my blades across the chest as I did so, but the creature's size along with the toughness of its skin meant the wounds were minor at best.

My landing was less than ideal though, as the fish Abomination lashed out at with its tongue, which was long and sticky like a frog's, before I reached the ground. My balance was off when my feet hit the pavement, so I was unable to react when a black blur slammed into my side and threw me to the ground. I grunted in pain as I drew myself up to my knees, and I found that my situation had suddenly gotten even worse. All five of the Abominations I had seen so far were now standing around me, including the bird I had meet on the roof and the panther which I assumed was the one just clipped me in the side. The all stared at me with feral eyes and savage grins (well, those that had the facial structure to allow it, anyway). The briefly talked amongst themselves in a language I did recognize, but I could tell that they were discussing just what to do with me, and the suggestions were not pleasant.

My mind raced as I tried to think of what to do. _I could take on one or two of them, but I'm not going to stand a chance against all five_, I thought to myself. _Not as I am anyway_. I could still feel the Light inside of me, ready to be used at a moment's notice. Even in my current situation, I was reluctant to use it. My sudden hallucination on the rooftop was enough proof that the power could be just as harmful to me as helpful, never mind any possible long term effects. I looked around for route of escape. _Maybe I should-_

My train of thought was cut off as I finally really noticed the destruction around me. There were building with holes in them and vehicles torn to bits, but more than anything else I saw the bodies. In particular I noticed a small boy hiding in the mouth of a nearby alley. He was crying and holding on the blood body of a woman propped up against the wall. She wasn't moving.

The hot rage, the fury in my chest began to grow. This couldn't happen. I wouldn't let it happen. I was given power to protect the innocent, and I was hesitating to use it? People were dying, and I was thinking of running away?! Without a second thought, I embraced the Light inside me.

I stood back on my feet, getting the attention of the monstrosities around me. They became tense, as if they knew something had changed but didn't know what. Stepping into my usual stance with both my blades at my sides, I issued my challenge.

"Bring it."

We didn't speak the same language, but my intent was understood. With a series of roars, they closed in around me.

Though I had been trying to use it as little as possible, I still took the time in the past few days to experiment with my newfound power in my workshop. Most of the tests I ran on the power itself were inconclusive or just failed outright. As far as I could tell, magic and whatever this stuff was didn't have any noticeable interaction with each other. I could be wrong on this account, but it would take a much better magus that me to find the connection. Still, while I wasn't able to figure out what it was, but I did acquire an amount of practical information about what it could do.

The bird and panther Abomination closed in from opposite side, trying to spread out my defense. With the speed they were moving at, it was likely they thought I wouldn't have the time to block or dodge both. However, at the last moment I turned and angled my body so that both attacks missed by mere centimeters. There surprise turned to pain when I brought both my blades around in a vertical arc, slashing both creatures that had stepped into my range in a windmill motion. The cuts were deep but not enough to stop them.

Normally, I would never have been able to dodge a coordinated attack like that with such precision. It wasn't just a matter of speed; it was also one of skill. However, the memories I had inherited showed that one of the most basic techniques of the power I obtained was to amplify the natural talent of the user. After some experimenting with the library of technique it knew, I found that these were known as Excellencies, and were the foundation of almost every other technique I knew. They weren't flashy or impressive; they just made you better.

In other words, just my kind of technique.

The abominations continued to come at me, but were surprised to find that they had trouble landing a hit. My movements had suddenly become much more fluid and precise, and my swordplay received a similar boost. Still, I wasn't quite operating at my physical maximum. I also had the Light techniques that could increase my strength and speed, but I wasn't using them. I had found out during my experimentation that while normally magic and that power don't have any particular interaction with each other, their effects do not always mix very well. While I could use both enhancement abilities at the same time for a considerable boost, the result of having my muscles enhanced in two distinctly different ways caused me a rather large amount of pain. I was sure I could find a way around it with enough time, but at the moment I stuck with the talent boosting Excellencies, as it didn't seem to cause the same problem. Of course, that meant while I was able to keep myself alive, I didn't have the edge I needed to win the battle. That meant I had to get creative.

Jumping back from a massive punch from the boar Abomination, I threw Kanshou and Baykuya out to my sides and immediately traced another pair. I repeated the process twice more while dodging around the street. Soon I had three pairs of the blades flying through the air while a fourth one was in my hands. The Abominations were confused by the seemingly random flying blades, and their attack on me eased to keep themselves from being torn to pieces, dodging or deflecting the blades as necessary.

It was the setup I normally used for Wing Crane Three Realm, one of my most effective finishing moves, but I had never used it fighting a group before. This was mostly because it was a technique for finishing one opponent, and the blades were difficult enough to keep track of without having to worry about other people interfering with their flight paths. In general, trying to use it a means to attack multiple opponents at once would take a truly ridiculous amount of skill to do correctly. Fortunately, a truly ridiculous amount of skill is just what my new abilities were giving me. They also gave me an extra little trick to help.

After giving a strong kick to the small rat Abomination and sending it flying, I reached out with my right arm towards a pair of blades that was about to meet midair and called one of them to me, using the same trick I did when I fought Archibald a few days ago. The blade raced to me, sending the other in an arc to follow it. This particular technique was meant to summon the blade to my hand, but as my hand was full already, I simply shifted to my left and let it fly past me, slicing off the tongue of the fish Abomination that was trying to hit me with it from behind. I gave a gurgle of pain from it's now bleeding mouth, and was distracted enough that it was clipped by another pair of the black and white blades and fell to its knees. Wasting no time, I clear the distance between us and with a pair of quick stokes I separated its head from its shoulders.

There was a look of alarm from the rest of the monsters at the sight of one of their own falling. For a moment, I stood still, at the center of my controlled maelstrom of blades.

One down, four to go.

The bird Abomination was the first to move against me, thinking I had let my guard down. It came at me with a flurry of kicks meant to rend me to pieces, but it wasn't good enough. I blocked and countered its strikes faster than it could make them, slashing it twice for each blow it tried to land on me. The Light in me surged as it enhanced my fighting style, making me become **One With Strife**. Before it could realize that something was wrong, the monster was cut to pieces and left in a bloody heap at my feet. I could feel the sunburst on my forehead glow with the use of my power.

The boar Abomination charged at me next, and I dodged around it rather than trying to counter it like the last assault. The shear difference in size and strength made my style impractical to use against it, and the thickness of its skin made my attacks less effective than normal. The pairs of flying blades had helped wear it down, but it was still far from defeated. If I wanted to take out this monstrosity, I would need to deal large amount of damage at once while its defenses were down. I knew just how to do it too, though I desperately hoped I wasn't overestimating the ability I was about to use.

I dodge and parried for a few seconds longer while I carefully maneuvered all of the flying blades into place. Then, when the Abomination threw a massive punch at me with all its strength, I suddenly stopped and mentally incanted _My body is made of swords_.

Under normal circumstances, I don't believe that even turning my body into swords would be enough to completely protect me from that attack. However, during my experimentation I found that there was one glaring exception to everything I had found out about how my magic and Light interact: my Reality Marble. When I had first tried using Tracing after getting my new power, I ended up with a massive headache and several new techniques floating around my head. It wasn't until later that when I could experiment that I found that the techniques weren't new; they were enhancements to the abilities my Reality Marble already gave me. And it wasn't just that I could seamless mix the two energies (something which was proving problematic for the rest of my magecraft), I found that I had become unable to _not_ do so. I wasn't sure what would happen if I ran out of one power source and not the other, but for the time being, anytime I wanted to use my Reality Marble, I had to use the Light as well.

As I channeled my power, I suddenly found myself surrounded by swords of golden light, planted into the ground around me. It was an ethereal image of Unlimited Blade Works, but I knew it was just a side effect of channeling the Light. When the boar Abomination's fist collided with my body, there was sharp ringing of metal and the glowing outline of hundreds of interlocking swords rippled across my body. At that moment, I wasn't just made out of swords. I was an **Unbreakable Aegis of Blades**. And I felt nothing.

The Abomination's surprise was sort lived, as but a moment later all three flying pairs of blades converged on its position and sliced into its body. It roared out in pain as the blade lodged themselves into its sides, chest and neck. As it stumbled backwards, bleeding heavily from its numerous wounds, I threw the blade in my right hand and struck it right between the eyes, finally killing the beast.

Turning around, I was unable to immediately find the other two creatures. After a moment I spotted the panther Abomination running down the street away from me, having decided that it was unwise to continue fighting. We were on one of the longer streets in Shin Tokyo, so it was at least a good 500 meters away by this point and increasing distance with every second. As I let my blades fade to nothingness, I Traced a massive bow and move to a nearby car. I idly noticed that the ethereal swords disappeared and reappeared at I moved rather than moving with me, but I filed that away for later examination as I jumped on top of the vehicle. I didn't have ideal shooting conditions; consider the moving target, the distance and the number of objects in the street.

However, such things were irrelevant.

A broadsword formed in my hand as I pulled back the string. As I took aim, a soft glow encompassed the blade. When I fired, the glow intensified, turning the projectile into a spear of light. With my Reinforced eyes, I saw the creature get impaled the chest, taking out a good chuck of its torso as it did so. Its forward momentum carried it for another 10 meters before it tumbled to the ground dead.

I wasted no time in searching for the last one, and found it in mouth of the same alleyway I had spotted the boy in. Sure enough, the rat Abomination was holding the boy from behind, its claws press against his throat as it glare at me fearfully. The child appeared to have passed out from the stress, but otherwise appeared to be fine. Still, I wasn't sure if I could get off an attack before the rat cut the boy's throat, so I decided to use something I had been practicing of late. I hadn't quite gotten it down yet, but now was as good a time as any to try.

As I gathered my od, I felt something tickle at the back of my head. It wasn't a memory so much as an instinct, a reflex that responded to what I was trying to do. As I gave my magic shape, I reflexively put some of my Light into the glowing aura around me and said "Taking hostages to save your own wretched existence is… prohibited."

I felt a small headache gathering at the back of my skull as I used both techniques at once, but the results were worth it. I have no idea what it saw, but the monster began shaking uncontrollably in fear, letting the unconscious boy drop to the ground. I took the opportunity to raise my bow, quickly Trace an arrow and put it through the Abomination's eye and into its brain.

I stood in the street, victorious over my foes amid the destruction they had caused. I reflected on the battle and my use of my new abilities in combat. This was the first chance I had had to truly try them out after experimenting with them in my workshop, and I was impressed with the result. With some more training and research, I was sure I could integrate it seamlessly with my own magic and fighting style. For the time being it was still a little rough around the edges, seeing as how I needed to used a great deal of my more flashy abilities… which I had used without a second thought… in public… and was now standing in the middle of the street glowing like a flood light and quickly finding that I was unable to turn it off.

_Shit!_ I mental cursed to myself. _How the hell could I be so careless?!_ While I wasn't concerned about the fact that I had instantly jumped to the defense of others, I was alarmed that I had done so without even thinking about being discreet or subtle. There were a number of things I could have done that would have worked without reveling myself or my abilities. Granted they wouldn't have been as effective and I was strapped for time, but my time at the Clock Tower and on the run have taught me to not rush in swords blazing. The fact that all of that conditioning had just been ignored in an instant was not a good sign, especially considering my suspicion that my new abilities were affecting me mentally.

I quickly dashed into the alley, and after checking to see if the boy was ok, I took off trying to find a place to hide. I needed to find out what was happening to this city, and myself.

* * *

Zelretch gave a relived sigh as he finally closed the hole in the fabric of spacetime. The result was an ugly looking scar to his multi-dimensional perception, but that honestly wasn't much worse than the rest of the fabric of realty around the city. He supposed that he shouldn't be surprised that a portal between worlds opened considering how fragile it had been for the past few days, but he was still no closer to finding out what was causing it in the first place. The fact that things were getting worse also did little to raise the immortal's sprits.

It wasn't sure if it was luck or the boy's own natural magnetism for trouble, but whatever the case Zelretch was glad that the Emiya boy happened to be around when those warped things came over from the other side. He could (and would) have dispatched them easily if he had not been busy closing the breech.

And keeping worse things from coming through.

The immortal turned and walked off the roof where he had found the portal. It seemed that the other world (Creation, if he remembered correctly) was bleeding through to this one, and he knew of nothing in this world that could cause such a thing. So that meant he had to find out if there was something in the other one that could.

And wouldn't you know it, he just happened to know where a woman from Creation with knowledge in multi-dimensional mechanics was staying.


	6. Chapter 6

Aethiana absentmindedly threw the two bags of garbage she was carrying into the dumpster before looking up at the night sky with an irritated frown. It had taken a great deal of convincing of the matron of the inn to allow her to do even the smallest of chores given how bad her injuries were. Well, how bad she was playing up her injuries anyway. Her Exaltation allowed her to heal much faster than a normal mortal would have (she was almost completely healed at this point), but she wasn't willing to let on her true nature yet for a number of reasons.

In any case, Aethiana mainly asked for duties in order to stave off the boredom she had been accumulating for the past few days. To put it simply, the Chosen of Battles was not used to being cooped up in a room with nothing to do for extended periods of time. She was a person of action, and preferred to be doing things rather than just sitting around. Unfortunately, the woman was at a loss for things to do, and it wasn't just because she was trying to keep up the illusion that she was still infirm. Normally she would be spending her time planning for her next encounter with the sorcerer and using some skills unique to her Exaltation to do so. There was just one problem with that:

Her Fate Craft no longer worked.

She glared up at the stars even harder, as if doing so would cause them to align in a way that actually made sense. It wasn't that she couldn't just find Zelretch; she couldn't see _any_ Fate whatsoever. Normally any Sidereal worth their salt could make out the designs of the Loom of Fate reflected among the stars, but at the moment they might as well have been random points of light on a black sheet. It was to be expected, she supposed; the Loom of Fate only governed that which was in Creation, which she as she had found out shortly after she arrived here she was not in. Still, it was rather disconcerting to not be able to see the great design which she become accustomed to through her long existence. She briefly considered the idea that this world had no Fate at all before discarding it. The idea that a world could exist where there was no grand design behind all things was just absurd (and though she didn't want to admit it to herself, more than a little terrifying).

She gave a sigh and looked back down from the heavens, but didn't immediately turn back to go inside. It had been a very long time since she didn't know what to do, and to be honest it was not a sensation she enjoyed. It wasn't just her mission that was causing her uncertainly, but also her current situation. She was stuck in an inn with a bunch of rambunctious non-human women involved in a rather dubious relation with the only other man in the house (Well, there was another man besides Shirou living in the Izumo Inn, but she had her doubts about that one.) Not only that, she was frequently engaged by the other members of the household to converse with them. It wasn't that she was adverse to it per se, it was just, well, she had no idea how to talk to people who weren't other Sidereals or gods. Many other Sidereals could mange just fine, but she was a Chosen of Battles who was very focused on her purview. She didn't talk with mortals very often, and when she did, they would always forget about her later due to the Arcane Fate that afflicted all Chosen of the Maidens. With the Loom of Fate out of reach, that was no longer the case and the various residents of the inn could remember her just fine.

She was also coming to learn that she may need to revise her opinion that Sidereals were the eccentric beings in existence.

Her musing on the gaggle of excitable busy females had to wait till later though, as a familiar voice spoke up from behind. "I think you need to tell me more about just how you got here."

Aethiana's form became a blur as she whirled around and lashed out with a kick at the form of Zelretch that had appeared behind her. However, rather than connecting, the damn sorcerer once again disappeared in a flash of prismatic light to reappear a short distance away, like he had numerous times during their previous fight. She pretty sure she knew how it worked (likely a variation of her own form), but she needed more information before she could think of an effective counter. "I do not need to tell you anything, sorcerer." She replied harshly. "You are the one who needs to tell me where the Solar is. Do not think that your tricks will continue to protect you from me. I've already figured out most of them."

That was something of a half truth. She had indeed figured out a number of the techniques he had used during their battle (some were things she already knew, others were rather novel which she would love to study later if at all possible), but it was the ones she hadn't figured out that she was worried about. She also didn't have as much Essence as she would have liked as for some reason her pool had been regenerating rather slowly ever since she got to this world. However, she wasn't truly concerned about ether of these things; she learned enough about the man's abilities to be confident in a rematch, and her own skill with Obsidian Shards of Infinity gave her all the Essence she truly needed.

Zelretch's face gave her pause, though. The very serious expression that he wore was at odds with the playful smirk that she had seen him wear before. He gave a grunt and said "I don't care about think you know about me, I care about why portals from your world are starting to open up in this one."

She blinked in surprise. "Wait, what?"

"I'm sure that you heard about it. Today, there were several monsters that appeared and attacked inside the city. Didn't you wonder where they came from? "

Aethiana thought back to earlier in the day when she heard the glasses wearing redhead yelling something to that effect. She had wanted to enquire more about it, but she had no idea if that was something that happened often in this world. She was having a hard enough time as it was masking her origins, and asking questions about things that may be common knowledge around these parts could be the canon that broke the warstrider's back, as it were. "So, I'm taking it that's not something that happens in this world?"

It was Zelretch's turn to blink in surprise, followed by the man pressing his hand to his face. "No, no it's not." He replied. "Monsters in this reality tend to be more discrete or stay away from high population centers." He looked back up at the Sidereal. "But that is neither here nor there. The point I'm trying to make is that the two worlds have become connected somehow, and this city has become the focal point on this side. It's causing the fabric of reality to warp, and as we saw today, tear. It's been happening ever since your arrival here, though until now, there's only been a relatively small amount of foreign energy bleeding through. So, I will ask again," he said stepping forward, a hint of menace in his voice, "Exactly how did you travel arcos dimensions?"

The Sidereal would have been mildly annoyed at the man's attempts to intimidate her if she wasn't busy processing what he just told her. _What is happening? I was told that the Ma__idens would reopen the portal when I sent the signal using the artifact they gave me. __It shouldn't be happening on it__s o__w__n like this…_ She thought.

After a few moments of thought, Aethiana decided to give the sorcerer a brief summery. "After you left, we found that there were trace amounts of you magic where you departed, though they were fading quickly. Once the nature of the sorcery was determined, my order, as well as the Maidens of Fate, were called upon to devise a way to follow where you had gone. I was the one who laid most of the ground work due to my experience with parallel realities."

Zelretch arched an eyebrow. "Isn't it a little ironic that a master of alternate possibilities is in the employ of beings that control fate?"

Aethiana rolled her eyes at this. "Only if you believe in the most childish and simplistic explanation for Fate. In truth, not every little thing is exactly planned out, just the larger and more important things. And that is to say nothing of beings that exist outside it like Demons. Or yourself."

A small smile came to the man's face. "So what you're saying is that Fate is less of a straight line and more of a big ball of wibbly wobbly fatey watey… stuff."

Aethiana stared incredulously at the man, gaining the distinct feeling that she was being made fun of. "What? No! That does not even make any sense. Of course I wouldn't say that. Who would?"

"Oh, it's just something an old friend of mine used to say when describing temporal mechanics." Zelretch said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "In any case, please continue."

The Sidereal tried her best to keep her eyebrow from twitching as she continued. "Anyway, while I was able to figure out the core probabilistic fluctuations and dimensional vectors, there wasn't enough time me to complete all of the calculations before all traces of you disappeared. Considering that I was treading new ground in a very specialized field of fate and probability, I'm rather impressed that I got as far as I did. Fortunately, the majority of the calculations required only needed basic Fate Craft and additional reference points, so the rest of the Five Score Band was able to carry those out. The Maidens themselves provided the power to send me past the boundaries of Creation."

The sorcerer stroked his beard as he listened and thought over the explanation. "Hmm… Yes, I can see how that could work. If you have the power and working knowledge of probably manipulation, it's relatively simple to figure out how to go beyond it if given an example. Of course, the real challenge comes from trying to find any single target in the whole of everything that was, is and will be possible. Outsourcing that function and distributing it among several people is a very clever way of getting the frame of reference needed. I must say, I am impressed on how quickly you went from theory to practice." The frown then returned to his face. "However, the more people working on it, the more chances there are for someone to make a mistake."

Aethiana shook her head. "Don't see how that could happen. The rest of Five Score Band might not be knowledgeable about dimensional mechanics, but I gave them specific instruction on what to do. I even told them check with each other to make sure they got it right."

Zelretch arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Because the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to believe that's might have happened. There's likely more to it than just that, but conflicting reference points would diffuse the effect over an area of spacetime." His gaze hardened. "Regardless of what's causing this, what do you intend to do about it?"

"Me? What am I supposed to do? I barely know how any of this works, not to mention the fact that Fate doesn't work the same way here as it does in Creation." Quite frankly, she was surprised that any of her abilities still worked, but fortunately her primary martial art was still functional despite the lack of Fate for some reason, so her overall combat ability wasn't really affected. This reinforced the fact that she was the correct choice to send on this mission, as most other Sidereals would have been rendered helpless if in her place.

"If that's the case, why don't you go back to Creation to fix the problem from that side?"

Aethiana's eyes narrowed at the older looking man. "Oh? And how am I to know that this isn't some ploy to make me abandon my search for the Solar? Even if the danger is real, it could have just been created by you to keep me occupied while you use the Exalted for your own ends."

Zelretch's voice was laced with anger as he replied. "It might not be known for my compassion, but I don't like your implication that I am willing to commit genocide to get what I want, and make no mistake, that is what will happen if this continues. Tears will continue to open between worlds if nothing is done to fix this and neither of these dimensions are ready for that. This world isn't as defenseless as you might think, but millions could still die if the wrong thing appears in the wrong place."

Aethiana was silent for a moment, considering what he said. Eventually, she responded "You could be right. However, as it stands, I still cannot trust you. You stole a thing of great power from my world for your own ends and you act like it is nothing of consequence. You can only guess at the potential of an Exaltation, and yet you let it run free in this world without a care. No, sorcerer, I will not stop my hunt for the Solar Exalted. If you are indeed so concerned about our two worlds, than I suggest that you find a way to fix it yourself, as you will no doubt be more knowledgeable about what to do than I would."

Zelretch stared at her for a few moments longer before giving a small sigh. "I see. I'm sure that we will meet again Aethiana Salence, and I hope then you'll have a better sense of priorities." Then, with a quick flash of rainbow light, he was gone.

She stood staring at that space he occupied for a moment, wondering if letting him go was the right thing to do. She considered attacking him and finishing their previous battle several times during their conversion, but decided against it out of curiosity. She didn't know if he was lying or not (social interaction was not her forte after all), so the idea that the worlds were starting to bleed together might have been true. Whatever the case, she needed to look into it herself, and without her Fate Craft, she would have to use more mundane methods of investigation.

Still, a potential upside of all this if it were true would be that Zelretch would be too busy trying to fix everything to keep the Solar hidden from her, as callous as that sounded. Still even then she had to decide just what she was going to do to the person when she found them. She had told Zelretch that she was willing to kill them for the Exaltation, and that was true, though she didn't really want to. Aethiana was one of the few Sidereals that had come into existence after the Usurpation, so she had never really bothered forming an opinion on the Solar. Now it looked like she would have to form one and soon.

She was broken out of her musings when a familiar voice called out to her from the inn a short distance away. "Aethiana-kun, what's taking so long? Were you overcome by your injuries and unable to return to the house?" Miya teased her as she put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

Aethiana gave a small snort at the jab. "Everything is fine, Matron." She said as she returned her gaze back upwards. "I was just looking at the stars."

* * *

I awoke as I usually did those days, buried under a pile of nubile female bodies. I suppose most guys would love to say the same thing for themselves, but they probably didn't know how much it took to get used to all the elbows and knees poking into you, waking you up in the middle of the night and interrupting your sleep. While fortunately I was use to such things, unfortunately I had something else keeping me from a good night's sleep.

And it was something that Akitsu, in her habit of watching me sleep, noticed. "Another nightmare, Shirou-sama?"

I looked to my left to find the snow woman in her usual position, looking at me with more concern than she usually did. I gave a small grimace as I nodded, remembering the dreams I had briefly forgotten in my morning haze. As I began the arduous morning ritual of digging myself out of the pile, I thought about how it was unsurprising that Akitsu was the first one to notice my bad dreams. Given how she almost constantly stared at me, it stood to reason that she would start seeing the differences in my sleep cycle. Still, the fact that she could tell the difference between a psychic vision of a reacting Sekirei and a normal nightmare was somewhat disconcerting.

Well, normal probably isn't the correct term to use here. Perhaps it was spurred by my encounter with those things the day before, but I had more visions of Harmonious Blades 'purging' towns he had thought had been corrupted by the 'Wyld', though I was quite certain that most of them were perfectly fine. With his paranoia ever increasing, I wouldn't be surprised if he burned his entire kingdom to the ground.

I just wish I didn't have a front row seat to it.

As I finally managed to stand and Akitsu moved to get dressed herself, I looked down on my flock with a frown. I was starting to worry just how my new… condition might affect them. The Sekirei were all supposed to be psychic to some extent, mostly in connection with their Ashikabi. What if they started subconsciously picking up my visions of death and madness? What if my very presence stared to warp who they were into something terrifying?

I had thought I might have had to come clean when I got back to the inn and found reports of a monster attack on the television, but fortunately there were no clear photos or descriptions of myself. They were noticeably close though, and gained me some curious looking from the assorted members of the Izumo Inn, especially Homura. Still, the reports made mention of the more fantastic abilities I used, so I simply asked if they really thought I was capable of such things. After a moment most of them just shrugged and moved on, choosing to believe the much more sensible answer that I was just a normal human and that unknown hero was someone who kind of looked like me.

I wasn't quite as lucky with some of the others, though. Miya already had suspicions about my nature and gave me a coy smile as I denied any involvement, though I was certain that she wouldn't say anything. My real problem was Matsu, as she used her computers to go over everything with a fine digital comb. This was admittedly my own fault as I gave her a Norito and told her to find out everything she could about the incident. I was well aware that doing so could lead to my discovery, but I was more worried that not finding out everything I could about it would have worse consequences in the future, so I took the risk. Given that Matsu knew that the 'Golden Hero' as they were calling him looked very similar to myself, she was at least very suspicious of me, even if I said it wasn't me. I felt bad lying, but I didn't think she completely believed me anyway. I would just have to deal with that later.

Oddly enough, I didn't see Aethiana that night, as she opted to stay in her room. I was meaning to talk to her about all this, but I was so caught up in everything else I just forgot about it. I would have to talk to her today then.

"Master…" I was snapped out of my thoughts as my head turned to the side, finding Akitsu looking at me and fully dressed.

At first I just thought she was simply telling me that she was ready to go, but then I realized what she actually said. "Akitsu? What's wrong?" She didn't refer to me as 'master' unless she was upset.

"Ah…" She looked down to the side, a small blush on her face. "It's nothing."

I frowned and walked over to her. "No, there's something bothering you. What is it?"

She spent a moment longer looking away before glancing back at me shyly. "You're worried."

I blinked in surprise at this. "I… suppose I am. There's a lot to be worried about." I replied, not sure what to make of her statement.

Akitsu shook her head. "About your nightmares. You've been getting them more often. They're troubling you. I…" she looked down at the ground, as if ashamed. "can't help."

Ah, now that made sense. She saw someone she cared about hurting, but didn't know how to fix it. That was something I could relate to. Personal relationships were never exactly my strong suit. I gently took her by the shoulders to get her attention. "Akitsu, don't worry about it. I'll be fine."

She didn't look at me, instead tensing at the contact and continuing to look at the ground. I gave a small sigh before I move a little closer to her, putting my hand on her cheek to bring her head up. "Akitsu, look at me." She did, though her blush increased as her eyes met my own. "Look, I know that I've been a little… different lately, and yes there are some things troubling me, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to make me feel better." I tried my best to sound comforting, though I wasn't quite sure if it was working. Regardless, I pressed on. "If you want me to feel better, just… keep being you. Your one of the few constants I can rely on these days."

"Ah… really?" She replied in a small voice.

I gave her the warmest smile I could. "Yes, really."

There was a pause before her shoulders relaxed. "… Thank you, Shirou-sama."

As a small bit of tension left my own shoulders, the next thing I meant to do was go down stairs and start breakfast, but that didn't happen. Standing there as I was, so close to the rather beautiful woman with my hand on her cheek, I found that I couldn't move. Maybe it was her concern for me, maybe it was the proximity, or maybe that it had just been a while since things had become this intimate with a woman. Whatever the case, the next thing I knew I had brought my head down and was kissing her.

Two very interesting things happened at that point. The first of which was that I felt her drain my od. This was surprising as I would have thought such a thing impossible due to her being scrapped. However, it was the second thing that turned out to be far more important:

She also drank from my Light as well.

There was a small thump like a pressure wave and as I broke contact with Akitsu out of surprise, she arched her back and looked upwards as wings made of ice crystals erupted from her back. It was more than just that though, as the temperature in the room dropped and snow began to form and swirl around her. The air took on a crisp quality, and for a moment I had a feeling. I didn't how I knew, but could swear that it was the feeling of standing in the middle of a frozen lake at night, snow quietly falling around me. The crest on her forehead and her wide eyes burned with a golden light as she stood there, like an angel of winter.

I was dimly aware of noises behind me, but they were ignored in favor of the sight in front of me. What was happening? My Light was never drained when I kissed Matsu, so how did it Akitsu do it? And just what was it doing to her.

Eventually, the enchanting sight before me faded, the wings dissolving into the air and the glow from her head and eyes dimming. When it had all disappeared, Akitsu slowly titled her head back down, a look of shock and disbelief on her face.

I knew that my other Sekirei had awoken from the event, but no one said anything. The room was completely silent as we stared at the ice Sekirei.

And stared at her now clean forehead.

Finally, tears began to form in Akitsu's eyes and she spoke to me, a smile of utter happiness coved her face. "From glories most high, I am now yours. Forever and ever."


	7. Chapter 7

Aethiana sat alone in the living room of the inn, the large display device on the wall showing a man talking about the events of the day before and a smaller one in her hands. Since her conversation with the sorcerer a few hours prior, she had resolved herself to finding out as much about what had happened with the so called monster attack as possible. Under normal circumstances she would investigate the area in which it had happened and use some of her talents as a Sidereal to learn more, but that was not an option as all but her martial art charms were somewhat unreliable at the moment. As such, Aethiana had turned to the bespectacled woman in the inn to ask about other ways of obtaining information in this reality, and the answer was most certainly informative.

While she had Exalted after the Usurpation, she still knew a great deal about First Age of Man and the wonders and artifice it contained, which was to say nothing of the celestial city in which she lived. However, it was safe to say that she had never seen anything like what these people called "information technology". Not necessarily in function (apparently they were still unable to speak with the gods that inhabited the machines) but in sheer volume and breath. Almost everyone in this world owned some kind of device made for collecting, analyzing, and transmitting information. And not only that, but it seemed that they were all connected to each other, enabling one person to learn what was happen thousands of miles away almost instantaneously. The sheer implications of such artifice were mind boggling, though the Sidereal had to put such thoughts aside as she hunted down what she was looking for.

Though it had taken some effort to figure out just how the things worked. It had been late, and Aethiana had been too proud to ask for help while everyone else was going to sleep. Still, she was not an awe struck peasant who had found a piece of lost First Age technology. After some perseverance, she had started to find what she was looking for.

Although she was perplexed at how she kept managing to find such large amounts of pornography. It was a little distracting.

After all that nonsense had been settled, she had found a number of reports and images of the attack, confirming that at the very least that this was not something that normally happened in this world. It also looked like the creatures in question were in fact Abominations, or maybe some kind of beast-men. This lead credence to the sorcerer's claim that a tear had opened between the realties, as much as Aethiana didn't want to believe it. That could complicate things immensely, and she wasn't even sure what could happen.

Still, all of that fell to the side when she found out about the 'Golden Hero' as the people seemed to be calling him. A man had appeared and killed the Abominations, and did so using abilities that none of the common folk could explain. There were few pictures, and none of which were of good quality due to the angle and his speed. However, there was one recorded moving image that gave her all the proof her suspicions needed; it showed the man at the center of a pillar of gold, and while the light drowned out his features, a sunburst crest was clearly emblazed on his brow. The Solar was in the city, and was a Dawn caste to boot.

Though his anima banner was somewhat troubling. Aethiana had heard that most Solars' anima banner was some kind of animal, but his seemed to be a field of blades. It was not unheard of for The Chosen of the Unconquered Sun to have more esoteric banners, but the Sidereal couldn't shake the feeling that it meant something.

She gazed tiredly out the window, noticing that dawn had crept up on her at some point. There was a brief moment where she wondered if she really should be so focused on the Solar. If Zelretch was right and she really could help with the tears more back in Creation than she could here, then it would be fool hardy not to do so. Of course, if she left, she would lose the man she was hunting, and that could cause just as much harm as well. It was incredibly frustrating as she didn't have enough information about which situation was worse to make a good decision. The best she could come up with for now was to find the Solar as fast as possible and get back to Creation before things get any worse.

Looking back at the blurred images of the man she was hunting, she felt something scratching at the back of her mind, like a puzzle piece she had almost figured out where it went. Even with the poor quality of the image, she could tell the man was taller than most of the population in the city, and that his hair was a unique shade of red. That was so familiar to her for some reason. _What if…_

However, her train of thought was quickly derailed when she absentmindedly picked up some foodstuff she had gotten from the kitchen and put in in her mouth. Aethiana gave a small moan of pleasure as the flavors danced on her tongue. She was semi-seriously considering taking Shirou back with her as well if it meant she could keep eating his food. It would probably be a step up for him too; she didn't know how his cooking fared compared to the god of Feasts (you had to make a reservation years in advance and it cost a small fortune to go), but she was sure that cuisine of this level would be welcome in Yu-Shan. The biggest shame was that she didn't have more of it, as the man had limited himself to only making small amounts as it caused rather… extreme reactions in the rest of the women living here.

_Then again, given a man who can cook this well, I suppose it no surprise th__ey feel the need to assert their__ claim on him_, she thought to herself. _Not to mention the fact he' a decent man, and not that bad looking eth-_ She stopped that train of thought. No, she would not let the fact that she hadn't been intimate with anyone in a very long time get in the way of what she was doing.

The Sidereal blinked when she realized she had forgotten what she was thinking about. She gave a sigh. _I'm usually much more focused than this, but I guess that I'm a little out of my comfort zone. The rest of the inn will be up soon anyway, so I should break for now lest they find out what I'm doing_. She still had a cover to keep after all.

It was then she heard a great commotion coming from upstairs. Normally she would have ignored it, but she felt like taking her mind off more serious matter for a few minutes. As she moved her way up the stairs she was joined by the only male besides Shirou that lived in the house hold. "Why can't they start acting crazy until after I get up?" Homura grumbled to himself. "Besides. Miya probably will think that they're up to inappropriate things if they keep this up."

Aethiana gave a snort. The landlady did indeed have a rather strict sense of what was proper when it came to sex, and she had seen the non-human make her opinions clear several times with a rather fascinating charm that involved a demonic looking mask that emanated pure malice. Still, while the Chosen of Battles was not particularly inclined to intimate relations, she still felt that the woman could stand to loosen up a bit. Reaching the door that lead to the room where Shirou and what he affectionately called his flock sleep, she slid it open to find all of the women in the room crowding around the stoic one while Shirou stood gaping at them.

"What the devil is all this damn racket about?" Homura asked.

"Ah, Homura-san! Shirou just winged Akitsu!" Musubi replied.

The man blinked dully for a moment before rubbing his head. "Ok, I must still be half asleep, because I swear I just heard you say that Shirou winged Akitsu."

"You did hear that! Because that's what I said!"

"No, no, that can't be what you said because that is impossible!" Homura ground out. "If that were the case, then her crest would-!" His sentence was suddenly cut off with a strangled noise from his throat and his eyes widened as he looked at the woman in question. Aethiana followed his gaze and found that the crimson symbol which was once on the woman's head was now gone.

The Sidereal frowned in thought. She had honestly never really enquired about these creatures that called themselves Sekirei, and as such didn't know a lot about them. Maidens, she probably wouldn't be able to tell that they weren't human if Shirou didn't tell her as much. All she really knew was that they somehow bonded themselves spiritually to a human partner, their mate oddly enough. She wasn't sure what it meant that Shirou had attracted and bonded with several of them, but it certainly made several implications about his prowess in the bedroom. All that aside, she did remember one of them telling her how the quiet one was unable to bond for some reason or another. The fact that this was not the case was apparently a rather large shock to the rest of them.

Although if the woman in question was shocked as well, that was cast aside for the expression of joy she had on her face. "It's true. Shirou-sama has become my Ashikabi."

"Wha-but, you can't…" Homura sputtered before turning to the gaping red head. "What did you do?!"

Shirou snapped her head towards the other male. "What? Oh. Well, I just kissed her."

"That shouldn't have done anything! She's a Scrapped number!"

"Well… has anyone tried to kiss Akitsu before?"

There was a pause as the room looked at Akitsu, and the woman shook her head.

"Well, there you go." Shirou said sheepishly. "I guess MBI was just wrong about her not being able to be winged."

"You can't possibly…" Homura trailed off, still having problems believing it but being unable to refute the logic. He pressed on regardless. "Just because her crest disappeared doesn't mean she's winged. What if-"

Akitsu wasn't going to have any of that, as at that moment she strode up to Shirou and pressed her lips against his.

There was a low thump and a number of ice crystals formed outward from the woman's back, resembling a pair of wings. A winter's chill swept through the room as snowflakes swirled around her person. The very essence of winter seemed to radiate from her being, from the crisp scent of cold to the stillness of the air. Not only that, her eyes shone bright and the crest reappeared, this time floating an inch in front of her forehead and cast in gold.

Aethiana's eyes widened at this. Though it was somewhat unusual, she knew an anima banner when she saw one.

The room was silent once more at the impressive display before Shirou coughed awkwardly. "Right, well, there you go." He stared at Akitsu for a few moments before his brow furrowed. "Uh, Akitsu? Why aren't the wings fading?"

The woman titled her head in confusion, as if she didn't understand. "…are they supposed to?"

"Yes! That's what's supposed to happen with a Norito!" Homura exclaimed. He didn't seem to be taking this new development particularly well for some reason.

"Ah," was all the woman had to say.

".. do you think you could make them disappear?" Shirou asked. "It would be kind of difficult to move around the house with them."

"Ah," Akitsu repeated, and for a moment was silent before she said "I cannot."

There was some more talking but Aethiana had stopped listening. She had no idea that these Sekirei were capable of expressing an anima banner, though it seemed by the various reactions that this was somewhat unusual. What interested her most was the crest, as both the color and the way it floated slightly in front of the woman's brow reminded her an awful lot of the Solars. It could just be a coincidence, but what if it was related to the Lawgiver that had appeared? The Sidereal glanced at Shirou. _Wait, what if-_

"Well, with all this craziness, I think I deserve to make some breakfast."

…_no, of course not. That would be silly._

* * *

Takami was in deep concentration as she looked at the cell culture from the 'were-panther' as the rest of the staff had nicknamed it. When she had first gotten a call from MBI about having monster corpses she needed to look at, she thought it was Minaka playing some kind of sick joke on her. However, she found those reports of a monster attack in downtown were all too real when she walked into her lab and found 5 bodies of half animal, half people things lying on tables. She (and the rest of her underlings) had spent all of last night taking them apart to see just what they were and where they came from.

She felt a mild sense of amusement at the fact that numerous conspiracy theorists would claim that MIB created these monstrosities, because while it was true that they played god while toying around with other species, this one they had nothing to do with.

And to be honest, she couldn't tell if anyone had anything to do with this. While the physiological differences were indeed impressive, it was what was happening on a cellular level that was truly strange. The DNA she had sequenced was truly a mess, only having a handful of similarities to the human (or even Sekirei) genome. It was like the whole thing was put into a blender, set on frappe, and then put together at random, yet somehow managing to make a viable life form. That couldn't be right, as such massive mutations should just make a mess of organic goo. And even getting past that, the cells themselves made no sense, as she had yet to find anything resembling mitochondria or similar energy making organelle. How did they metabolize anything?

Takami frowned as she thought of the Sekirei. While the aliens did have normal metabolic functions, they were not enough to power their more extraordinary abilities. Those were fueled by the core (or as the records they had managed to translate from the ship call them, tama) that was in their chest. Much of the workings of the cores were also a mystery to her, as it seemed they gave a blatant middle finger to the law of conservation of energy. Some of her staff had taken to calling them 'S2 engines', though she had no idea what that meant other than it was some kind of anime reference.

As she was wondering if there was some kind of connection between the two, the door to her lab burst open and the bane of her existence walked in. "Takami-san! I have important n-" That was as far as Minaka got before a Bunsen burner collided with his head and sent him crashing to the ground.

"How many times have I told you not to burst into my lab like that while I'm doing experiments?!" Takami growled.

Minaka sat up and rubbed his head. "Ow… you usually use something much lighter, Takami."

"I'm usually not up all night studying biology that doesn't make sense."

The man drew himself up and stood in one of those ridiculous poses he always did. "Well you can put all that non-sense aside, because it doesn't matter anymore!" Takami's eyes twitched at Minaka dismissed the incredibly remarkable specimens she had been working on for the past few hours. "It went ding!"

"… what in the hell are you talking about?"

"The dimensional sensory device! It went ding!"

Takami gave him a baffled look until she realized what he was talking about, proceeding to place her head in her hand. "For the last time, we don't even know for sure that what it is. And even if it is, it probably doesn't mean anything." Years ago when the two of them had found the alien spaceship, the creatures themselves hadn't been the only prize they had found. There was an untold treasure trove of advanced technology as well. Of course, they first had to figure out how it worked, and given the amount of time that would take, they had to prioritize. As the both of them were biologists and they were intent on learning as much as they could about the aliens on board, they had naturally focused most of their efforts on medical technology, and it was from that decision that Mid Bio Informatics was created. Still, there was a large amount of other technology they were sitting on, and while it was never the focus of their R&D department, they always had at least a few scientists trying to figure out what it could do.

She remembered the device he was talking about because he had been so excited when the scientists who had been working on it told him their hypothesis of what it did. Minaka babbled some nonsense about 'finding the realm of the gods', but the thing was so fiendishly complex the only thing they could make it do was sit there and hum. The eventually shelved it, as they had more important things to work on.

"Of course it means something! It means that these things," he waved to the various mutated bodies around him. "came from another plane of existence!"

Takami opened her mouth and then closed it. That… was annoyingly possible actually. It would explain why they were so different for one thing. Still, the part of her that was a skeptic (and the part of her that hated Minaka) had to disagree. "That's sounds completely ridiculous."

"Perhaps, but it doesn't mean that it's not true." The man replied slyly. "I checked the time for when it acted up, and it was mere minutes before the first reports of violence came in. And there's more: I looked back even further in the video records in the lab we were keeping it in, and its gone ding 2 more times before this in the past few days!"

"And what does that mean?"

"In all likelihood, that more are bound to follow!" Minaka said excitedly as if more ravenous monsters appearing in the city were a good thing. "Don't you see? We're entering the new age!"

"Or it could be any number of other things!" Takami shouted in frustration. "We already have enough on our plate as it is with the Sekirei Plan, these monsters, and the information leak. Not to mention that other _thing_ that showed up with these." The media had been calling the man that slayed the creatures the 'Golden Hero', and it was small wonder why considering that he glowed with a yellow-gold light that did not behave according to any law of optics she knew of. That was only the tip of the iceberg, as in addition to showing clearly super-human speed and reflexes, he seemed to pull swords and bows from nothing. The idea that he was a Sekirei was thrown out the window as she knew all the males and none of them had anything like that in their power set, nor were they near the area at the time.

"Ah, you're talking about the Hero, yes?" The childish man said with a grin. "Well it's only natural that Heroes would begin to emerge in the New Age of the Gods. They are-" He paused as he caught on to something else she had said. "Wait, information leak? I thought we had control of all information going in and out of the city."

"All Sekirei related information." Takami corrected. Even then, it was nightmare. Carefully monitoring and editing all of the data going in and out of a city in the information age was a monumental task, and was accomplished by the hundreds of networked computers down in the basement of the building. "Our monitoring system only picks up data related to the Sekirei and ignores the rest. This event was so far out there that the algorithms we use didn't classify it as a censor event. We put a lid on it as fast as possible, but…"

"You're telling me that this got out to the rest of world?!" Minaka exclaimed, for the first time showing concern.

"We're spinning it as a hoax, but yes."

The CEO put on a serious expression. "Hmm, this is most distressing. We're going to have to accelerate our plans."

"What?!" Takami exclaimed. "But we're not ready! Not even all the Sekirei are winged yet!"

"We'll find a way around that. Besides, I wasn't just talking about the Sekirei Plan." he replied. "I've ordered our engineers to start making modifications to the dimensional sensor device. I have plans for how I might put it to a different use."

"That's insane! We don't even really know what it does! Changing it could have catastrophic effects! And on top of that madness you plan to rush the job because some people are going to see a report on the internet that any sane person would think is a hoax?!"

"All it takes is for one person of influence to believe it to ruin all we have done so far." Minaka replied evenly. "Besides, greatness requires risks. I shall not let anyone take away my destiny of ushering in the New Age! It shall be done!"

With that, the man spun on his heel and walked out of the lab, leaving Takami sputtering in anger and frustration, wondering what new madness she would have to deal with next.

* * *

In a small flat in London, Rin Tohsaka walked into her home and slammed the door behind her in frustration. _Those pig headed, arrogant, stuck up, assholes!_ She thought to herself. It was the third time since the… incident that she had been to an informal hearing so that she could plead the case of removing the Sealing Designation from Shirou, but she had about as much luck as the previous two times. It was made worse by the fact that it seemed the only reason the lords ever let her plead her case at all was so they could mock and ridicule her for thinking she had any sway in the Clock Tower. She knew that magi were a generally unpleasant bunch, but now it seemed like they were actively trying to insult her.

"I swear, when I find that man, I am going to kill him myself for leaving me behind to deal with this." She seethed.

Saber chose this moment to appear out of the bedroom. "Rin, I assume that you had no luck this time ether?"

"Every day murdering my way to the top of the Clock Tower hierarchy seems more and more appealing." The magus replied angrily.

The Servant gave a nod and grimace, not pleased with the information, but not surprised by it either. "Then we shall have to make do without it. Master, I think I have found something."

This did surprise Rin. "What? What did you find?"

"A lead, I think. Come." With that she walked back to the bedroom with Rin in tow, and picked something up off the bed.

Rin frowned. Saber was using the dohicky again.

When it had become clear that they shouldn't get there hopes up for the Clock Tower changing its mind, the two had decided to search for their lover on their own. Of course, seeing as how they couldn't tell anyone what they were doing, the two women had to use different resources than they were accustomed to. Oddly enough, it had been the former King who had suggested that they turn to technology for their solution. Rin was reluctant (she, like all magi, had a rather dim view of modern technology), but Saber had been insistent that they had to use any possible method they could find. So, the two of them went to an electronics store and Saber asked for the simplest device they had that could get information from all over the world. Normally Rin might have been worried about being taken advantage of has she knew nothing about electronics, but Saber didn't ask so much as demand the clerks for a good deal. Rank B Charisma had its uses.

In any case, they device they got was rather fascinating. It was called a 'Table' or something like that, and had a large screen they could touch and interact with. It had taken them weeks to truly figure out how it worked, and to be honest Rin still wasn't very good at it. It was somewhat embarrassing that her Servant from the 5th century was better with it than her, but to be fair the magus was busy with magecraft all day long.

Saber tapped the screen a few times before holding it out to her Master. Rin took it and saw what looked to be a poorly edited video of some monsters terrorizing a city before some glowing man fought and killed them. "What is this, some kind of trailer for a movie? It's not very good, even I can tell the picture quality and camera angles are bad."

"This is a news report." Saber said, taking back the device "Apparently, this happened a few days ago in Shin Tokyo, a city in Japan." After tapping the screen a few times she handed it back to Rin.

"What? That's impossible, those don't look like any Phantasmal Beasts I know of and the Clock Tower would never allow something like this to get out." She looked back at the device and after a few clumsy attempts, managed to scroll through the article that the video was attached to. "See, it even says here that it's a hoax. Stuff like this pops up on the inter-whatsits all the time."

"That was I had thought at first as well, but then something caught my eye." She leaned over and tapped to make the video start again, before moving the time forward a bit. Now having a bit of context, Rin realized that these were several different videos cobbled together, likely from people using those handheld recording devices that were built into everything these days. Didn't make it real, though.

The Servant commented "Magi often claim events to be fake when they want something hidden, so I wondered if that was happening here." Saber stopped the video at one point, showing the man wreathed in golden light surrounded by several bars of light sticking out of the ground around him. "Look at that. Does it remind you of anything?"

Rin frowned as she looked closer at the image. It just looked like a bunch of-

Her heart caught in her throat. Swords. They weren't bars, they were swords. She had seen the manifestation of Shirou's Reality Marble before, and what she was seeing now was uncannily similar. Still… "That doesn't mean… it could be a coincidence. It's a rather striking image after all."

Saber wordlessly let the video play again, and this time image broke away from the fight, and the camera man focused on one of the glowing light-swords that were near him. Saber paused it again on a particularly clear shot. "That is Durandal. Shirou has shown it to me before."

Rin's mouth was dry. It was a famous weapon, but few knew what the sword actually looked like. "Is… is there anything else?"

Saber nodded, and made the video go back a bit, to before the man started glowing. It was hard to see what was going on with the motion blur, but it seemed like the man threw a pair of things out to his sides before he did so again two more times. When she saw the projectiles curve back around towards each other, she knew.

Wing Crane Three Realm. It was one of Shirou favorite finishing moves. All of these things taken separately could have been a coincidence, but together it was too much for her to ignore. But what was that glow? And just why and how was he projecting the image of Unlimited Blade Works into the world? And just what the hell was he fighting?

One thing was clear, though. "You know, it's been far too long since I visited my estates back in Fuyuki. And perhaps we could visit some other places while we're there."

Saber gave her master a victorious smile.


	8. Chapter 8

Kazahana leapt from rooftop to rooftop as fast as she could, trying to get away from her pursuers. Normally, she wouldn't have any kind of problem getting away from whatever Sekirei might have been pursuing her. She may have been an elemental type, but given that she was constantly surrounded by her element, the bottle fair could call upon a great amount of speed and maneuverability. Add that to her experience gained from having been a part of the old Disciplinary Squad, and Kazahana could take on or avoid mostly anyone she pleased.

Except of course the new Disciplinary Squad, which was what happened to be chasing her that day.

Landing deftly on a roof lower than the one she jumped from, she quickly spun around and unleashed a wave of wind at the 3 Sekirei trailing behind her in midair. The two younger ones were knocked aside, but Karasuba simply sliced through the wind with her blade and shot straight towards Kazahana. The wind Sekirei juts barely managed to throw herself back before the Black Sekirei landed on top of her. "Ah, you're being awfully persistent, Crow-chan." She said.

Karasuba merely returned that small smile of hers which she always gave her prey. "Well, orders are orders, Kazahana. Personally I'd prefer it if he just let me kill off all those unwinged weaklings left, but the Director wants them under MBI's control, so…"

Kazahana's thoughts briefly moved towards the man that she had given her heart to all those years ago. "Well, if Minaka wanted to see me, all he had to do was ask."

The other woman gave a snort. "I'm pretty sure he's just going to hand you to one of his underlings. That man seems to prefer the shrew for some reason. Probably doesn't say very good thing about you."

The wind Sekirei suppressed a grimace. She hadn't really thought that the Director wanted her back, but the dig still hurt the old wound in her heart caused by his rejection. Still, she managed to smirk and put an arm under her chest. "Oh? Maybe it just means he can't handle this much woman."

"As if!" Came a brash reply, and the two other Sekirei Kazahana had knocked off course jumped over the lip of the roof to join their teammate. The one that spoke, the pink haired one wearing some kind of black gi, continued by saying "Just because you have those giant things attached to your chest doesn't mean you're a real woman!"

The other one, who had silver hair and had a pair of wicked claws strapped to her arms, gave the first woman a wiry look. "… are you sure that you're not just experiencing breast envy?"

"W-What?! Of course not! I wouldn't even be able to balance with those things! Besides, Natsuo prefers women with smaller breasts."

"… Natsuo doesn't like breasts at all." The silver haired one muttered.

Kazahana chuckled as the pink haired one fumed over her partner's comment before pulling a bottle out of her cleavage. She took several long pulls as she thought of what she was going to do next. She had been running from these three for an hour now, and while she had so far managed to keep her composure, she was starting to tire. She knew that she had managed to successfully get away a few times, but they kept finding her regardless. That meant that they had some method of tracking her movements, maybe some combination of satellites and street cameras. Whatever the case, she knew that she couldn't keep running from them.

Unfortunately, fighting wasn't a very good option either. Kazahana sighed as she pulled the now empty bottle away from her lips. "Mou, and that was the last of my good stuff." Looking back at Karasuba, she said "You're even better than I remember. Tell me, have you found the man that makes your heart race and your body flush with desire?"

The woman with the katana shrugged. "I got winged if that's what you're asking." She responded in a bored tone, as if she was commenting on the weather on not the man she had bound herself to. "It was a little earlier that I would have liked, but the Director was insistent. Besides, Natsuo and I have… similar world views."

It was as she thought. Even under normal circumstances the two younger Sekirei could have given her problems as they were good working together, but Karasuba made it a whole new level of problematic. Kazahana wouldn't have enjoyed fighting the woman back when they were both still on the Disciplinary Squad, and now she was made even stronger by the fact that she had been winged. She might have considered fighting if she had her own Ashikabi… but that was not the case.

She idly hefted the empty bottle between her palms. "I don't suppose you could just forget you saw me. For old time's sake, Crow-chan?"

Karasuba's grin became wider. "Sorry, but after all of that running around, I've gotten a little excited. Enough that I my get a little clumsy and cut you into pieces rather than capture you. Besides, your one of the few people I've been meaning to fight for a long time, 03."

"Hmm," The wind Sekirei hummed for a moment before tossing the bottle at the excitable pink haired one. "Catch."

"Huh?" She said as she caught the bottle with surprise. She was about to ask what that was about before a powerful blast of wind knocked her over, taking advantage of the momentary distraction.

As the other two rushed in, Kazahana quickly made a cyclone of air around herself. It wasn't enough to knock them away, but it did pick up copious amounts of roof gravel. Karasuba simply plowed through it, but the other silver haired one stopped short and tried to protect her face. The wind Sekirei moved to the side to avoid Karasubas slash, but didn't quite get out of the way as a shallow cut bit into her side.

Ignoring the injury, she then surprised everyone present by running straight the clawed Sekirei, who had just recovered from the impromptu wind screen. The woman stabbed straight forward with one of her claws but was again caught by surprise when Kazahana leaned back and slid under the blow, grabbing the forearm of the offending limb as she did so. As the silver haired Sekirei had planted her feet wide to keep her balance while she was blinded, this gave Kazahana just enough space to slide her body through the other woman's legs, carried by the forward momentum of her run. This was made more problematic for the claw woman by the fact that the bottle fairy still had a grip on her arm, causing said arm to go between her legs and for her body to pitch forward. Right when she had lost her balance, it was then Kazahana, still sliding on the ground, let loose another blast of wind right into the woman's center of mass.

If the clawed woman had been a man, she would not have been getting up any time soon.

Karasuba need to dodge out of the way of her flying comrade, and this gave Kazahana enough time to break off and jump to the next rooftop, this time heading north. The Black Sekirei gleefully called after her. "You can't run from me forever, 03!"

Fortunately for her, that wasn't the wind Sekirei's plan. If she couldn't run from or fight the Disciplinary Squad, well, that just meant she had to go to the one place where they couldn't follow.

* * *

I walked down the street back towards the Izumo Inn, an almost comical amount of groceries held in and dangling off my arms. After all the commotion had died down this morning and all the questions on just how I did what I did stopped, it had been decided that there would be a party in honor of Akitsu becoming an official member of the flock. Naturally as all the women were too busy fretting around Akitsu, it was up to me to get the supplies for said party.

I just wished I could share their good mood. Don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled at the fact the Akitsu was winged and was feeling much better emotionally. However, I was still worried by the fact that I still wasn't really sure what had happened and how it affected the ice woman. I was still speculating the mental effects that my Light was having on me, and it was already clear that there were some definite changes that it made in her Norito. I only had Matsu to go by at the moment, but every time I preformed one with her, the wings only briefly appeared before vanishing and her ability activated. Akitsu not only manifested the wings, but also an aura of what I could only describe as 'winter' about her, and neither had vanished by the time I had left. The other Sekirei in the house found this unnatural, but reasoned that as a Norito will normally fade with time if it is not used, the woman would eventually return to normal.

That wasn't the only thing that bothered me though. What Akitsu had said, moments after she had been winged… _Fro__m glories most high_. I wasn't sure why, but that phrase struck some kind of cord within me. It was probably connected to the memories I had gotten along with my new abilities, but like most of what I knew, I had nothing to really connect it too. What I wanted was to have more time to study everything that had been happening to me lately.

Well, actually what I really wanted was to have Rin figure out all this stuff for me. She was always so much better at this sort of thing.

Of course, I doubted that I had the kind of time I needed to figure everything out on my own. Even putting the Sekirei Plan aside, I doubted that the Abominations I ran into yesterday would be an isolated incident. I was starting to feel more and more like my teenage self during the Grail War, thrust into a conflict I didn't understand against powers I didn't know existed and with rules that no one was playing by. _It feel__s like all I can do is scramble around until the next thing drops in front of me._

Just as I had that thought, a blur of purple dropped from the sky in front of me and crashed into some garbage bags.

For the love of everything in the World, I hate the Root so much.

I quickly rushed over to the pile, dropping my bags as I did so and readying myself for whatever horrible monstrosity I might have to face this time. However, I was instead greeted by the sight of a voluptuous woman with long black hair and in a purple Chinese dress pulling herself up out of the pile, a wobble in her stance as she did so. The reason for that was obvious, as she was covered in a number of cuts, bruises and scuffs. Nothing looked too serious, but given the situation it looked that she had been in some kind of prolonged fight and was exhausted. My magic sense of smell also told me that she was a Sekirei, so I could guess what had happened.

She took a shaky step forward before she started to fall, but I was able grab her and keep the woman upright. "Will you be alright?" I asked. "Is anyone following you?"

She dismissively waved her hand. "Eh, I've had worse than this, though that might not-" The woman cut herself off when turned her head to look at my face. A small bloom of red crossed her cheeks and she reached out to touch the side of my face. "You… look so much like him. You have the same face."

I went stiff at this, and not just because of the unexpected contact. Now that I had a good look at her, I could now recognize her from the files of all the Sekirei I had Matsu get: No. 03, Kazahana, former member of the old Disciplinary squad. The fact that she seemed to be confusing me with someone else just added to my discomfort. Maybe she was delirious or something?

Whatever the case, confusion was cut short when three more people dropped from the sky (this time on their feet), and I hear a rather familiar voice say "Ah, it's been a while, Minato-kun."

I glanced at the gray haired woman and suppressed a grimace. "Hello Karasuba. Am I to assume that you put this woman in her current state?" I said, nodding to the woman I was holding in my arms. "Also, don't call me Minato."

"Perhaps. Of course, she might not be in such a sorry state if she had simply come with us." She replied, though I didn't like the emphasis she put on the word 'might'.

This time I did frown. "Did she do something against the rules? If so, then why do you want to bring her in? You strike me more as the 'terminate on sight' kind of woman."

The black Sekirei crinkled her eyes and put her hand on the side of her face in a motion that disturbingly reminded me of Miya. "Oh Minato-kun, you already know me so well."

It was then the pink haired one, Benitsubasa if I remembered Matsu's files correctly, spoke up. "We have orders to bring in all the remaining unwinged to MBI to be assigned an Ashikabi. Cow-chest here is one of the last ones left."

Ok, now I was confused. "Wait, what? Why would Minaka change the plan so drastically?"

The silver haired one, Haihane, gave a shrug and said. "Who knows? There's talk that the Director has some new plans and needs to accelerate things a bit, but that doesn't really matter right now."

I felt my anger begin to rise in me. For all their talk of keeping things fair, it looked like MBI wasn't above changing the rules whenever it suited them. There was no telling how many the company might have taken and added to their own forces.

As gently as I could, I set the wind Sekirei down on the ground. As I was crouched, I reached into a pair of grocery bags I had set on the ground nearby. "If you want this woman…" As I said this, I Traced Kanshou and Bayaku and pulled them out of the bag. "Then you'll have to go through me."

"W-what the-?!" The Red Sekirei said in surprise. "Where the hell did you get those?! And how the hell did you fit them into those bags?!"

"They were on sale." I remarked. "And the baggers were really good at their job."

Karasuba on the other hand, simply grew an even wider grin on her face. "Oh, you really do know me." She said as she shifted her stance, her hand drifting to the hilt of her sword.

I felt the tension build, my body preparing itself for any attack that might follow… before I abruptly wondered what the hell I was doing. I get confronted by the Disciplinary Squad, and my first instinct is to Trace swords (in a rather questionable manner no less) and threaten them? Damn it, there really was something happening to me. Given what happened yesterday, it seemed that I was having a harder time fighting my instincts, particularly when it came to 'saving people'. Yet another thing I had to worry about.

Whatever the case, I was now looking at a potential 3 on 1 fight with the Sekirei, one of which being Karasuba. Under normal circumstances I knew I would be completely screwed, but with my new abilities? There was actually a chance I might live. Of course that didn't change the fact that if I used them it would become obvious to everyone involved that I was the 'Golden Hero' that the News was talking about, and that would lead to even more problems with MBI. Most likely they would try to capture me to find out what made me tick, in which case I would have two separate organizations wanted to take me apart to learn more about two different abilities.

Whatever the case, I couldn't think about that at the moment, as the Black Sekirei was eyeing me like a cat that had cornered a mouse. It was too late to back out now, so all I could do was try my best not to get killed.

However, before anyone could move, Haihane said "We shouldn't fight him. We'd get in trouble."

Karasuba spared a glance at the woman. "And why's that? I'm sure I wouldn't mind a little punishment if we had some here."

The clawed woman gave her superior a flat look. "I think I would mind a great deal more than you would. Besides, I wasn't talking about MBI." She then pointed a bladed finger past me. The lot of us looks and saw that we were in fact within viewing distance of the Izumo Inn. "I don't think that's a level of trouble that even you could handle."

Karasuba looked back at me and Kazahana, her eyes weighing the situation. She could only guess what I was capable of, but with the 03 here as well it was likely that we could at least create enough of a commotion that Miya would hear and come investigate. At the moment I could only speculate on what the relationship between the two women were like, but I was certain it was not a pleasant one. That and given the strength of the two, the damage could potentially be catastrophic.

Still, the Black Sekirei didn't look like she wanted to leave. The grip on her sword tightened, but Benitsubasa said "Hey! I don't want Natsuo to be mad with me! Just let the vulgar breast woman go for now!"

There was a long moment before the grey haired woman gave a sigh and relaxed. "Ah well, I guess there's no helping it. I'll just have to come back later. I'll be looking forward to seeing you again, Minato-kun."

I gave her a scowl. I then suddenly kicked and apple that had fallen out of the bags that was near my foot, sending it hurling towards the woman's head. She looked surprised, but caught it out of reflex anyway. "I said don't call me that. My name is Shirou." I almost growled at her.

She looked at me for a moment before the smirk returned to her lips. "I am _very_ much looking forward to seeing you again." She said. She then took a bite out of the apple and walked away, apparently having nothing else to say.

"Hey! Wait up!" Benitsubasu cried as she ran after the other woman. Haihane merely gave me a curious glance before casually following after the other two.

I didn't relax until the three of them were out of sight. That was a close one. I really needed to consider never leaving the inn at all. The world was just getting too dangerous as of late.

I looked down at the wind Sekirei, who was currently giving me a strange expression. "Um, do you need any help?"

The woman's expression changed to a rather sultry look. "Oh, it just seems that I've become a bit faint at the sight of your manliness. Could you carry me to that inn over there?" She asked, pointed to the Izumo Inn, framing her arms in such a way that it was very hard not to look at her impressive bust.

"I, uh, okay." I stammered, fighting the faint blush that was spreading on my face. I put down my swords (I couldn't make them disappear with her watching), and picked her up in a bridal carry before walking down the street.

Kazahana gleefully threw her arms around my neck. She looked into my eyes and whispered "My hero…"

* * *

With events shaping up the way they were, certain things within the World began to take notice. Not just in the physical one (thought that was certainly happening), but in the metaphysical as well. It particular, one such thing that is of particular note was Alaya, which was the name that Magi had given to the collective unconsciousness and will to survive of humanity. While it is most certainly aware and intelligent, it would be strictly incorrect to think of it as one would a normal entity as it is naturally made of the gestalt of the hidden part of countless human minds, being more akin to an aspect of reality or force than an actual creature.

This dilemma is compounded even further by the fact that Alaya exists outside of time, and therefore outside the many branching outcomes of probably. What that means is that Alaya is truly the amalgamation of will of every human that has, is, will, or possibly can exist, and that is not even going into how far one can stretch the definition of human. The real wonder is how anyone could hope to understand the thing. Fortunately, while it is mostly impossible to understand the whole, it is possible to understand it in part if one makes certain assumptions.

First, one could assume that rather than it being a single incompressible large being, it is instead a being made of an unaccountably large number of fragments, each one subtly different but still an integral part of a whole. Second, one could then assume that these fragments are divided between each different possible dimension, and would be comprised of all of the human beings that live there. The third assumption could be that this fragment would age and change along with the human population that makes it up as time moves forward. This is inaccurate of course, but with this assumption a person would be much closer to having an entity they could relate to.

The final assumption is that Alaya is female. There is no real reason for this other than that most humans prefer their sexual dimorphism.

When all of this is put together, it then becomes possible to sufficiently anthropomorphize the entity known as Alaya and what She was thinking when it came to a particular universe in a particular human city where a number of dimensional rifts had begun forming:

Alaya was confused.

Hopefully not as confused as the people trying to understand this.

To put it simply, She recognized that there were a number of things happening in Shin Tokyo that could potentially end in disaster. As it was Her purpose to save humanity from destruction, she had already set some things it motion to kept it from getting out of hand. However, things had gotten more complicated when some dimensional holes opened and things began to bleed between the two realities. Normally, She would assess the seriousness of the situation, find the cause of it, and react accordingly. However, Alaya found that She couldn't do a proper assessment as the source of the problem was in a dimension _where S__h__e didn't exist_.

She was perfectly aware that there were realties where there was no part of Her, even though in many of those humans continued to exist regardless (it has to do with how the mortals came about in the first place, but that is neither here nor there). However, this was the first time when it appeared that things from one such reality might threaten one of Her's. Now, She normally was just a reactionary force, allowing event to run their natural course until it was absolutely needed for Her to step in. This time though, as She had no idea when (or if) it would be too late, Alaya decided to do something about it.

There was a place at the Root of all existence known as the Throne of Heroes, a place where the souls if Heroes are kept for safe keeping. Within the Throne there is a special group of heroes, not known for great deeds or legends but people who had called upon Her power during their lives and thus were bound to serve her eternally upon their death. These were her Counter Guardians, the instruments of Her will. She would send five of these souls to the reality where these disturbances came from to investigate the cause, and upon finding it, destroy it. The amount She would be able to empower them (and subsequently, control them) would be drastically reduced as Alaya would be extending Her power to place She didn't exist, but She had no alternative.

Which souls She chose would be important for the task at hand. As the Throne, like Herself, was outside of time, Alaya was able to choose from a countless number of Heroes from all corners of the multiverse. Her team would most likely be comprised of people from worlds and cultures so vastly different that each would be a truly unique presence onto themselves.

Or She could pick 5 different versions of the same hero, but what were the odds of that happening?

* * *

Emiya took a deep breath upon materializing into the physical world once more. He stood perfectly still for a moment before he opened his eyes with a slight frown. Normally his mind would be completely suppressed by the will of Alaya the moment he came into existence, but that was not the case this time. Granted he could still feel the connection (unfortunately), but it was more of an insistent urge at the back of his mind rather the overwhelming command he was used to. Aside from the sort of half-sleep that was his time in the Throne of Heroes, Emiya hadn't had this sort of mental clarity since the Grail War into which he was summoned.

His lips pressed a thin line across his face at the memory. He had been so close to killing his younger self and possibly erasing himself from reality. It was a longshot, but it had been all he had. But at the last second, the shear strength of the boy's conviction in his beliefs, even in the face of what it would do to him later in life, had stayed the Counter Guardian's hand. He lost as a result, but even now he had a hard time getting truly angry about it. Odds were that Shirou wouldn't follow the same path that he did, or at the very least not be so self-destructive about it. Rin would be making sure of that.

Emiya shook his head to clear away the memories, and focused on the connection to Alaya to get a clearer idea of what he was doing. It took a few moments for the information to organize itself in his head, but once it did it became clear why the connection was so weak. _So, I'm in a world where Alaya doesn't exist. __It's not the first time I've been in a dimension not my own, but I've never been this far afield before_. Maybe with the connection weakened, he might be able to find a moment or two to enjoy himself.

Then again, he could be in this world for a very long time. The only real instruction he had was to find the source of dimensional disturbances and destroy it. Other than that he had no idea where to go and had absolutely no information about the World he was in. Looking around himself, all he could see was that he was in some kind of temperate forest. Beyond that, the world could contain anything.

_Well, maybe this will be a change of pace_, Emiya thought to himself as he started forward. First thing was first, he had to find the 4 Counter Guardians that had been sent here with him. He had no idea who they were, but they should have been sent to roughly the same area he was.

It was only a few minutes before he happened upon the first one, though it was safe to say that he was not expecting what he saw. Sitting on a throne of vines, the man was slim of frame and had white hair reaching down to his shoulders. He wore simple but well-made black pants along with bright red dress shirt that Emiya could tell was a Mystic Code of some sort. The man also had pointed, elfin ears giving him an otherworldly quality.

The man was also very clearly Emiya.

He shifted on his throne and quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, how very droll."

For his part, Emiya's eyebrow twitched furiously. "I hate the Root so very much."

The elfin man gave a smirk before rising, the throne of vines collapsing to the ground as he did so. "Well, that settles it. You definitely are some kind of copy of me, though you certainly are less attractive. That is no fault of your own of course, it is quite difficult to match my radiance." He said with a flourish.

Emiya's eyebrow twitched even more. He knew that there were many different versions of him in the Throne of Heroes (given that it stored all the heroes in the multiverse, that was true of everyone), but he had never thought than any version of him could be so…

_Bishou__nen_.

He had to suppress a shudder. It just seemed so wrong for some reason. "This is going to be a long mission." He muttered to himself.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Said a new and somewhat distorted voice. The two men looked to the side to see a man walking towards them, this one covered in some kind of futuristic looking black armor. The armor had a number of gaps in the right places for improved mobility with a red cloth underlay between them, and the metal itself was etched with arcane sigils and designs.

After a moment's pause, the perfectly smooth faceplate on the man's helmet developed a vertical crack and slid open, revealing a face identical to the other two men present. The armored man scowled before saying "Is the Root just using this as an excuse to screw with me? Because considering the odds of this happening randomly, I really wouldn't put it past It."

"At this point, it's probably safe to say that our other 2 compatriots are also different version of myself." The elfin man said dry. "Of course, if Alaya really wanted this job done, she would have picked ones that were much closer to the original."

The armored man gave him a flat look. "We're all from different dimensions. There is no 'original' in this context. Besides, you don't exactly look that imposing, Bishie-boy."

"Looks can be deceiving," Emiya said, not sure of what abilities these two might have. "Besides, it would be pointless to argue over which one of us is the strongest."

"Yes, because the answer is me," chimed in yet another new voice, and the three turned to find a fourth Counter Guardian Emiya walking towards them. This one was both taller and more muscled than the other three present, and that was saying something considering that Rin had once likened Emiya's physic to that of a Greek god(with much stammering an blushing after she realized what she had said.). He wore no shirt, just cargo pants, boots, and a tattered red cape that flowed behind him. His white hair was a bit longer than Emiya's own, but still shorter than the elfin man's.

Now this was just getting ridiculous.

The elfin man gave a snort. "Oh really? Then why don't you prove it."

The huge man settled into a fighting stance. "Fine by me. We might as well get this out of the way before the real mission starts."

"Oh? I suppose I have time to put you in your place." The elfin man said before energies began to swirl around him.

The armored man looked at the two before he shrugged and his faceplate closed. "There can only be one, huh? Well, I'm at least curious what you guys can do." Lines of light then appeared on his armor as parts opened to reveal gun barrels. He nodded at Emiya. "Are you joining too?"

Emiya paused for a moment. He knew that he really shouldn't, but… "I am a sword. Battle is my purpose." He said as his favorite blades appeared in his hands. He had found that betting the crap out of his younger self to be oddly cathartic, so he was willing to indulge his current free will to do so again.

The huge man chuckled. "That's great for you, but victory is my purpose."

Before anyone could act though, a barrier of brilliant light appeared between all four of them, and a new and final voice said "And my purpose is to apparently keep you four idiots from killing each other before we finish our damn job."

Four heads turned to see a figure clad in a flowing red robe, with cuts below the waist to allow freedom of movement for the legs and a mantle that when down to the elbows. The white hair also went down to mid back, tied in a braid.

All of that of course was ignored in favor of the fact that this Emiya was clearly female.

The four men present stared at her in surprise before simultaneously saying "That is just _weird_."

The woman twisted her mouth. "I'm pretty sure that is sexist somehow, but we have more important things to deal with. Namely the fact that we have an entire world to save and another world to search in order to save it. I don't particularly enjoy the thought of playing den mother to four gender bending duplicates of myself, but so help me if you get into another dick sizing competition, I will not hesitate to beat the lot of you senseless."

The men present glanced at each other sheepishly. They didn't know it, but all of them had been pushed around by bossy females at some point in their lives. They did not want to find out what the bossy female version of _themselves_ was capable of.

When it had become clear that everything had settled down, the woman gave a smile. "Good. Now, I imagine that we need to come up with names for ourselves as it would be rather confusing if we all responded to Emiya. As such, you can call me Emilya."

Emiya was silent for a moment before saying "Archer.", choosing the name he bore the last time he could think for himself.

The elfin man gave an amused chuckle at that. "Well, if you simply must, you may address me as Thereon."

The armored man rubbed his chin for a momentt before settling on "Miyamoto."

The huge man gave an equally huge grin. "Fuji."

Emilya nodded. "Good. Now, let's let this world know just why it's not a good idea to mess with the Counter Guardians."


End file.
